
Glass. 
Book. 



c 




'COPIED FROM A FRONTISPIECE TO THE EDITION BY FRONTO DUC/EUS, 
A. D. 1636, OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM'S WORKS (IN THE CATHEDRAL LIBRARY, 
CHICHESTER). * THE ORIGINAL IS STATED TO HAVE BEEN ENGRAVED FROM 
AN EIKON OF GREAT ANTIQUITY, AT CONSTANTINOPLE, AND AGREES WITH 
THE NOTICES OF CHRYSOSTOM'S APPEARANCE BY GREEK WRITERS, WHO 
DESCRIBE HIM AS SHORT, WITH A LARGE HEAD, AMPLE, WRINKLED FORE- 
HEAD, EYES DEEP-SET BUT PLEASING, HOLLOW CHEEKS, AND A SCANTY 
GREY BEARD.' 



SAINT CHKYSOSTOM 



HIS LIFE AND TIMES 



A SKETCH OF THE CHURCH AND THE EMPIRE IN THE 
FOURTH CENTURY 



By Eev. W. R. W. STEPHENS, M.A. 

BALLIOL COLL. OXON. J VICAR OF MID-LA VANT, SUSSEX 



IBSLfy a portrait 



LONDON 
JOHN MUKKAY, ALBEMAELE STEEET 



1872 



The right of translation is reserved 



^ 



,cs 



si 



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WITH FEELINGS OF THE WARMEST AFFECTION 
AND MOST PROFOUND RESPECT 



l f 



PREFACE 



The considerations which moved me to undertake the 
preparation of this monograph are mentioned in the in- 
troductory chapter. How far the design there indicated 
has been satisfactorily fulfilled, it is for others to decide. 
I am of course conscious of defects, for every workman's 
ideal aim should be higher than what he can actually 
accomplish. The work has incurred a certain risk fiom 
having been once or twice suspended for a considerable 
period ; but I have always returned to it with increased 
interest and pleasure, nor can I charge myself with 
having wittingly bestowed less pains on one part than 
another. I have endeavoured to make it a trustworthy 
narrative by drawing from the most original sources to 
which I could gain access ; and where, as in those portions 
which touch on secular history, the lead of general his- 
torians, such as Gibbon or De Broglie, has been followed, 
I have, as far as possible, consulted the authorities to 
which they refer. To modern authors from whom I have 
derived valuable assistance for special parts of the work, 
such as M. Amedee Thierry and Dr. Foerster, my obli- 
gations are acknowledged in their proper place. 

Neander's life of St. Chrysostom has, of course, through- 
out been frequently consulted. It is marked by the cus- 
tomary merits and defects of that historian. It is full 
of research, information, thought, and refined religious 
sentiment ; but he fails to bring out strongly the person- 
ality of his subject. We have abundance of Chrysostom's 
sayings and opinions, but somehow too little of Chrysos- 



vi PREFACE. 

torn himself. The fact is that ISTeander seems always to 
be thinking more of those views and theories about the 
growth of Christian doctrine and the church, which he 
wishes to impress upon men's minds, than of the person 
about whom he is writing. Thus, the subject of his 
biography becomes too much a mere vehicle for convey- 
ing Neander's own opinions, and the personality of the 
character fades away in proportion. Some passages in 
the life of his subject are related at inordinate length ; 
others, because less illustrative of Neander's views, are 
imperfectly sketched, if not omitted. 

In extracts from the works of Chrysostom, the some- 
what difficult question of the comparative advantages of 
translation and paraphase has been decided, on the whole, 
in favour of the latter. The condensation of matter 
gained by a paraphrase is an important, indeed necessary, 
object, if many specimens are to be given from such a 
very voluminous author as Chrysostom. A careful en- 
deavour, at the same time, has been made to render faith- 
fully the general sense of the original ; and wherever the 
peculiar beauty of the language or the importance of the 
subject seemed to demand it, a translation has been given. 

From an early date in the sixteenth century down to 
the present time the works of Chrysostom have occupied 
the attention of learned editors. The first attempts, after 
the invention of printing, were mainly confined to Latin 
translations of different portions. 

(1) The first edition which was issued in Greek of the 
6 Commentaries on the New Testament ' came from the 
press of Commelin, a printer at Heidelberg, in a.d. 1602. 

(2) In 1612 appeared a magnificent edition of the 
whole works, in eight thick folio volumes, printed at Eton, 
and prepared by Sir Henry Savile. Savile, born in 1549, 
was equally distinguished for his knowledge of mathe- 
matics and Greek, in which he acted for a time as tutor 
to Queen Elizabeth. He became Warden of Merton in 



PREFACE. vii 

1585, and Provost of Eton in 1596. Promotion in Church 
and State was offered to him by James L, but declined, 
though he. accepted a knighthood in 1604. His only son 
died about that time, and he devoted his fortune henceforth 
entirely to the promotion of learning. The Savilian pro- 
fessorships of Geometry and Astronomy in Oxford were 
founded by him, and a library furnished with mathematical 
books for the use of his professors. He spared no labour 
or expense to make his edition of St. Chrysostom hand- 
some and complete. He personally examined most of the 
great libraries in Europe for MSS., and, through the 
kindness of English ambassadors and eminent men of 
learning abroad, his copyists were admitted to the libraries 
of Paris, Basle, Augsburg, Munich, Vienna, and other 
cities. He used the Commelinian edition as his printer's 
copy, carefully compared with five MSS., the various 
readings of which are marked (by a not very distinct plan) 
in the margin. The chief value of the work consists in 
the prefaces and notes, contributed some of them by 
Casaubon and other learned men, though by far the best 
are Savile's own. The whole cost of bringing out this 
grand edition is said to have been 8,000L Savile's wife 
was so jealous of her husband's attachment to the work 
that she threatened to burn it. 

(3) Meanwhile, Fronton le Due, a French Jesuit, had 
been labouring independently, but in most amicable inter- 
course with Savile, not only to edit the works of Chry- 
sostom complete, but accompanied by a Latin translation, 
which he supplied himself for those pieces of which he 
failed to find any good one already existing. His death 
arrested the work, which was taken up, after a time, by 
the two brothers, Frederick and Claude Morel, and com- 
pleted by the latter in 1633. It was published in Paris 
in 1636, in twelve large folio volumes. The Commelinian 
was again used as the printer's copy, with fewer alterations 
than in the edition of Savile. 



viii PREFACE. 

(4) We now come to the great Benedictine edition, 
prepared under the care of Bernard de Montfaucon 5 who 
deserted the profession of arms at the age of twenty to 
become, as a member of the brotherhood of St. Maur, one 
of the most marvellously industrious workers in literature 
that the world has ever seen. In 1698, when the Bene- 
dictines had completed their editions of SS. Augustine 
and Athanasius, they began to prepare for an edition of 
Chrysostom, which they had intended to do for more 
than thirty years. Montfaucon was sent to Italy, where he 
spent three years in examining libraries; and, on his return, 
obtained leave from the presidents of the congregation to 
employ four or five of the brethren in collating MSS. in 
the Royal Library at Paris, and in those of Colbert and 
Coislin. Their labours extended over thirteen years ; 
more than 300 MSS., containing different portions of Chry- 
sostom's works, having been discovered in those libraries. 
Montfaucon, meanwhile, corresponded with learned men 
in all parts of Europe, in order to procure materials and 
further collations. His correspondents in England were 
Potter, Bishop of Oxford, Bentley, and Keedham ; and in 
Ireland, Godwin, Bishop of Kilmore. The result was 
that, after more than twenty years of incessant toil, Mont- 
faucon produced an edition, in which several pieces saw 
the light for the first time, and others, imperfect in 
previous editions, were presented eutire. The text after 
all is the least satisfactory part of the work. Mr. Field 
has discovered that the eight principal MSS. employed 
were not very carefully collated, and that, though Savile's 
text is extremely praised, that of Morel, by a curious in- 
consistency, is most closely followed, which is little more 
than a reproduction of the original Commelinian. The 
main value of the edition consists in the prefaces, written 
by Montfaucon to every set of homilies and every treatise, 
in which the chronology, contents, and character of the 
composition are most fully and ably discussed. The 









PREFACE. IX 

chronological arrangement also of the pieces is a great 
improvement on the editions of Savile and Fronton le 
Due, who had made no attempt of that kind. The last 
volume, the thirteenth, contains a life of St. Chrysostom, 
a most copious index, and dissertations on the doctrine, 
discipline, and heresies prevalent in his age, illustrated 
by notices collected from his works. On the whole, the 
edition must be pronounced a marvellous monument of 
ability and industry ; especially when it is considered that 
at the date of its completion, 1738, Montfaucon was 
eighty -three years of age, and had been engaged for 
upwards of fifty years in literary work of a most laborious 
description. He died in 1741. 

(5) The last edition, which leaves little or nothing to 
be desired, is that which I have used in preparing this 
volume — the Abbe Migne's, in 13 vols., Paris, 1863. It is 
substantially a reproduction of the Benedictine, in a 
rather less cumbrous size, and embodies some of the best 
corrections, notes, and prefaces of modern commenta- 
tors, especially those of Mr. Field to the Homilies of St. 
Matthew, and some by the learned editor himself. 

Such is a brief sketch of the several forms in which Chry- 
sostom's works have appeared. It seemed an appropriate 
introduction to the history of the man himself. If the 
perusal of that history shall afford to readers half as 
much interest, pleasure, and instruction as I have myself 
derived from the composition of it, I shall feel amply 
rewarded for my labour ; and I gladly take this oppor- 
tunity of expressing my gratitude to my father-in-law for 
originally suggesting a work of this kind, and to many 
friends, and especially my wife, for constant encourage- 
ment, without which a mixture of indolence and diffidence 
might have prevented the completion of my design. 

Dexsworth Cottage, Chichester : 
All Saints Day, 1871. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PACK 

Introductory 1 



CHAPTER II. 

From his Birth to his Appointment to the Office of Eeader, a.d. 345 or 
a.d. 347 to a.d. 370 



CHAPTER III. 

Commencement of ascetic Life — Study under Diodorus — Formation of 
an ascetic Brotherhood — The Letters to Theodore, a.d. 370 . \ 26 



CHAPTER IV. 

Chrysostom evades forcible Ordination to a Bishopric— The Treatise ' On 
the Priesthood.' a.d. 370, 371 43 



CHAPTER V. 

Narrow Escape from Persecution — His Entrance into a Monastery — The 
Monasticism of the East. a.d. 372 ....... 61 



CHAPTER VI. 

"Works produced during his monastic Life — The Letters to Demetrius and 
Stelechius — Treatises addressed to the Opponents of Monasticism — 
Letter to Stagirius . . . . . . . . . .73 



CHAPTER VII. 

Ordination as Deacon — Description of Antioch — Works composed during 
his Diaconate. a.d. 381-386 . ... . . . .90 



XII CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

PAGE 

Ordination to the Priesthood by Flavian — Inaugural Discourse in the 
Cathedral — Homilies against the Arians — Animadversions on the 
Chariot Eaces. a.d. 386 108 



CHAPTER IX. 

Homilies against Pagans and Jews — Condition of the Jews in Antioch 
— Judaising Christians — Homilies on Christmas Day and New Year's 
Day — Censure of pagan Superstitions, a.d. 386, 387 .... 127 

CHAPTER X. 

Survey of the first Deeade of the Reign of Theodosius — His Character — 
His Efforts for the Extirpation of Paganism and Heresy — The Apo- 
logies of Symmachus and Libanius. a.d. 379-389 '..".. . . 146 

CHAPTER XL 

The Sedition at Antioch — The Homilies on the Statues — The Results of 
the Sedition, a.d. 387 . . . 157 



CHAPTER XII. 

Illness of Chrysostom — Homilies on Festivals of Saints and Martyrs 
— Character of these Festivals — Pilgrimages— Reliques — Character of 
peasant Clergy in Neighbourhood of Antioch. a.d. 387 . . .185 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Survey of Events between a.d. 387 and a.d. 397 — Ambrose and Theo- 
dosius — Revolt of Arbogastes — Death of Theodosius — The Ministers 
of Arcadius — Rufinus and Eutropius 194 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Death of Neetarius, Archbishop of Constantinople — Eager Competition 
for the See — Election of Chrysostom — His compulsory Removal from 
Antioch — Consecration — Reforms — Homilies on various Subjects — 
Missionary Projects .......... 221 

CHAPTER XV. * 

The Fall of Eutropius— His Retreat to the Sanctuary of the Church- 
Right of Sanctuary maintained by Chrysostom— Death of Eutropius — 
Revolt of Gothic Commanders Tribigild and Gainas— Demand of Gainas 
for an Arian Church refused by Chrysostom— Defeat and Death of 
Gainas. a.d. 399-401 250 



CONTENTS. xili 



CHAPTER XVI 

PAGE 

Chrysostom's Visit to Asia — Deposition of six simoniacal Bishops — Legi- 
timate Extent of his Jurisdiction— Return to Constantinople — Rup- 
ture and Reconciliation with Severian, Bishop of Gabala — Chrysostom's 
increasing Unpopularity with the Clergy and wealthy Laity- — His 
Friends — Olympias the Deaconess — Formation of hostilo Factions, 
which invite the Aid of Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria, a.d. 400, 
401 276 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Circumstances which led to the Interference of Theophilus with the Affairs 
of Chrysostom — Controversy about the "Writings of Origen — Persecution 
by Theophilus of the Monks called ' The Tall Brethren '—Their Flight 
to Palestine — To Constantinople — Their Reception by Chrysostom — 
Theophilus summoned to Constantinople, a.d. 395-403 . . . 298 



CHAPTER XVin. 

Theophilus arrives in Constantinople — Organises a Cabal against Chry- 
sostom — The Synod of the Oak — Chrysostom pronounced contumacious 
for Non-appearance and expelled from the City — Earthquake — Recall 
of Chrysostom — Ovations on his Return — Flight of Theophilus. 
a.d. 403 319 



CHAPTER XIX. 

An Image of Eudoxia placed in Front of the Cathedral — Chrysostom de- l 
nounces it — Anger of the Empress — The Enemy returns to the Charge — 
Another Council formed — Chrysostom confined to his Palace — Violent 
Scene in the Cathedral and other Places — Chrysostom again expelled. 
a.d. 403, 404 340 



CHAPTER XX. 

Fury of the People at the Removal of Chrysostom— Destruction of tho 
Cathedral Church and Senate House by Fire — Persecution of Chry- 
sostom's Followers — Fugitives to Rome — Letters of Innocent to Theo- 
philus — To the Clergy of Constantinople — To Chrysostom — Deputation 
of Western Bishops to Constantinople repulsed — Sufferings of the 
Eastern Church— Triumph of the Cabal, a.d. 404, 405 . . . 356 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Chrysostom ordered to be removed to Cucusus — Perils encountered at 
Csesarea — Hardships of the Journey — Reaches Cucusus — Letters written 
there to Olympias and other Friends, a.d. 404 376 



XIV CONTEXTS, 



CHAPTER XXII. 

PAGE 

Chrysostom's Sufferings from the winter Cold — Depredations of the 
Isaurians— The Mission in Phoenicia — Letters to Innocent and the 
Italian Bishops — Chrysostom's Enemies obtain an Order for his Re- 
moval to Pityus — He dies at Comana, a.d. 407 ■ — Reception of his 
Reliqnes at Constantinople, a.d. 438 ....... 396 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Survey of Chrysostom's Theological Teaching — Practical Tone of his 
Works — Reason of this — Doctrine of Man's Nature — Original Sin — 
Grace — Free-will — How far Chrysostom Pelagian — Language on the 
Trinity — Atonement — Justification — The two Sacraments — No Trace 
of Confession, Purgatory, or Mariolatry — Relations towards the Pope — 
Liturgy of Chrysostom — His Character as a Commentator — Views on 
Inspiration — His Preaching — Personal Appearance — References to 
Creek Classical Authors — Comparison with St. Augustine . . . 407 

Appendix 451 

Index .... . . . . . ... . 453 



Errata. 

Page 7, line 1 from top, instead of ' Ambrose, only two — Augustine and Chry- 
sostom — survived into the fifth century,' read 'Ambrose, Jerome, 
Augustine, and Chrysostom, the last three alone survived into the fifth 
century.' 
,, 8, line 9 from top, the words ' of Mariolatry ' should be omitted. 



LIFE AND TIMES 



OF 



ST. C H 11 Y S O S T O M 



CHAPTEE I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

I. There are many great names in history which have 
been familiar to us from almost our earliest years, but of 
the personal character, the actual life of those who bore 
them, we are comparatively ignorant. We know that they 
were men of genius ; industrious energetic workers, who, as 
statesmen, reformers, warriors, writers, speakers, exercised 
a vital influence for good or ill upon their fellow-men. 
They have achieved a reputation which will never die ; 
but from various causes their personality does not stand 
out before us in clear and bold relief. We know some- 
thing about some of the most important passages in their 
life, a few of their sayings, a little of their writings ; but 
the men themselves we do not know. 

Frequently the reason of this is, that though they occupy 
a place, perhaps an important place, in the great drama 
of history, yet they have not played one of the foremost 
parts; and general history cannot spare much time or 
space beyond what is necessary to describe the main pro- 
gress of events, and the actions and characters of those 

B 



2 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. I. 

who were most prominently concerned in them. Other 
men may have been greater in themselves; they may have 
been first-rate in their own sphere, but that sphere was 
too much secluded or circumscribed to admit of the exten- 
sive and conspicuous public influence of which alone his- 
tory takes much cognisance. They are to history what 
those side or background figures in the pictures of great 
mediseval painters are to the grand central subject of the 
piece : they do but help to fill up the canvas, yet the 
picture would not be complete without them. They are 
notable personages, well worthy of being separately de- 
picted, though in the large historical representation they 
play a subordinate part. 

To take out one of these side figures of history and to 
make it the centre of a separate picture, grouping round 
it all the great events and characters among which it 
moved, is the work of a biographer. And by many it will 
be felt that nothing invests the general history of any 
period with such a living interest as viewing it through 
the light of some one human life. How was this indi- 
vidual soul affected by the movement of the great forces 
with which it was surrounded or brought into contact? 
How did it affect them, in its turn, wherever in its pro- 
gress it impinged upon them? This one consideration 
will confer on many details of history an importance and 
freshness of which they seemed too trivial or too dull to 
be susceptible. 

II. Among these side characters in history, characters 
of men in themselves belonging to the first rank, men 
whose names will be renowned and honoured to the end of 
time, but precluded, by disposition or circumstances, from 
taking the foremost place in the larger canvas of general 
history, must be reckoned many of the great ecclesiastics 
of the first four or five centuries of Christianity. Every- 
one recognises as great such names as Origen, Tertullian, 



en. L] INTRODUCTORY. ?> 

Cyprian, Basil, the two Gregorys, and many more. Every- 
one would admit that the Church owes them a debt, but 
it may be safely affirmed that here the acquaintance of 
many with these eminent men begins and ends. A few 
scraps from their writings quoted in commentaries, one or 
two remarkable acts or sayings which have been thought 
worthy to be handed down, a few passages in which their 
lives flit across the stage of general history, complete 
the knowledge of many more. Such men, indeed, as 
Athanasius and Ambrose are to some extent exceptions. 
The magnitude of the principles for which they contended, 
the energy and ability which they displayed in the con- 
test, were too conspicuous to be passed over by the general 
historian, civil or ecclesiastical. The proverbial expression 
'Athanasius contra mundum' attests of itself the pre- 
eminent greatness of the man. But with other luminaries 
of the Church, whose powers were perhaps equally great 
but not exercised on so public a field or on behalf of such 
apparently vital questions, history has not dealt, perhaps 
cannot consistently with its scope deal, in any degree com- 
mensurate with their merits. Nor does this remark apply 
entirely to civil history. Ecclesiastical history, also, is 
so much occupied with the consideration of subjects on a 
large scale and covering a large space of time, — the course 
of controversies, the growth of doctrines, the relations 
between Church and State, changes in discipline, in 
liturgies, in ritual, — that the history of those who lived 
among these events, and who by their ability made or 
moulded them, is comparatively lost sight of. The out- 
ward operations are seen, but the springs which set them 
going are concealed. How can general history, for 
instance, adequately set forth the character and the work 
of such men as Savonarola or Erasmus, both in their 
widely-different ways men of such incomparable genius 
and incessant activity ? It does not ; it only supplies a 

B 2 



4 LIFE AND TBIES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. 1. 

glimpse, a sketch, which make us long for a fuller vision, 
a more finished picture. 1 

III. It is designed to attempt, in the following pages, 
such a supplementary chapter in ecclesiastical history. An 
endeavour will be made not merely to chronicle the life and 
estimate the character of the great preacher of Antioch 
and Constantinople, but to place him in the centre of all 
the great movements, civil as well as religious, of his time, 
and see what light he and they throw upon one another. 

The age in which he lived was a troublous one. The 
spectacle of a tempestuous sea may in itself excite our 
interest and inspire us with awe, but place in the midst of 
it a vessel containing human life, and how deeply is our 
interest intensified ! 

What was the general character and position of the 
clergy in the fourth century ? What was the attitude of 
the Church towards the sensuality, selfishness, luxury, of 
an effete and debased civilisation on one hand, and the 
rude ferocity of young and strong barbarian races on the 
other ? To what extent had Christianity leavened, or had 
it appreciably leavened at all, popular forms of thought and 
popular habits of life ? What was the existing phase of 
monasticism? what the ordinary form of worship in the 
Catholic Church? what the established belief respecting 
the sacraments and the great verities of the Christian 
faith? In answer to such enquiries and to many more, 
much useful information may be extracted from the works 
of so prolific a writer and preacher as Chrysostom. Being 
concerned also as a preacher with moral practice more 
than with abstract theology, his homilies reflect, like the 
writings of satirists, the manners of the age. The habits 
of private life, the fashionable amusements, the absurdities 
of dress, all the petty foibles, as well as the more serious 
vices of the society by which he was surrounded, are 

1 In the case, of the former this picture has on the whole been worthily 
executed in the pages of Villari ; the life of Erasmus remains to be written. 



Ch. t.] INTRODUCTORY. 5 

dragged out without remorse, and made the subjects of 
solemn admonition, or fierce invective, or withering sar- 
casm, or ironical jest. 

IY. Nor does secular history, from which not a single 
chapter in ecclesiastical history can without injury be 
dissociated, want for copious illustration. Not only from 
the memorable story of the sedition at Antioch, and from 
the public events at Constantinople, in which Chrysostom 
played a conspicuous part, but from many an allusion or 
incidental expression scattered up and down his works, we 
may collect rays of light on the social and political con- 
dition of the empire. We get glimpses in his pages of a 
large mass of the population hovering mid- way between 
paganism and Christianity ; we are conscious of an op- 
pressive system of taxation, a widely-spread venality in 
the administration of public business, a general insecurity 
of life arising from the almost total absence of what we 
understand by police regulations, a depressed agriculture, 
a great slave population, a vast turbulent army as dan- 
gerous to the peace of society as the enemies from whom 
it was supposed to defend it, the presence of barbarians 
in the country as servants, soldiers, or colonists, the con- 
stantly-impending danger from other hordes ever hovering 
on the frontier, and, like famished wolves, gazing with 
hungry eyes on the plentiful prey which lay beyond it. 
But in the midst of the national corruption we see great 
characters stand out; and it is remarkable that they 
belong, without exception, to the two elements which alone 
were strong and progressive in the midst of the general 
debility and decadence. All the men of commanding 
genius in this era were either Christian or barbarian. 
A young and growing faith, a vigorous and manly race ; 
these were the two forces destined to work hand in hand 
for the destruction of an old and the establishment of a 
new order of things. The chief doctors of Christianity in 
the fourth century — Augustine, Chrysostom, Ambrose — are 



6 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. I. 

incomparably greater than their contemporary advocates of 
the old religion and philosophy, Symmachus or Libanius ; 
even as the Gothic Alaric and Eravitta, and the Vandal 
Stilicho, were the only generals who did not disgrace the 
Roman arms. 

V. Some remarks on the theology of Chrysostom will 
be found in the concluding chapter. The appellation of 
preacher, 1 by which he is most generally known, is a true 
indicator of the sphere in which his powers were greatest. 
It was in upholding a pure and lofty standard of Christian 
morality, and in denouncing unchristian wickedness, that 
his life was mainly spent, rather than, like Augustine's, 
in constructing and teaching a logical system of doctrine. 
The rage of his enemies, to which he eventually fell a 
victim, was not bred of the bitterness of theological con- 
troversy, but of the natural antagonism between the evil 
and the good. And it is partly on this account that 
neither the remoteness of time, nor difference of circum- 
stances which separate us from him, can dim the interest 
with which we read his story. He fought not so much for 
any abstract question of theology or point of ecclesiastical 
discipline, which may have lost its meaning and impor- 
tance for us, but for those grand principles of truth and 
justice, Christian charity, and Christian holiness, which 
ought to be dear to men equally in all ages. 

VI. But there is also in the struggle of Chrysostom with 
the secular power an ecclesiastical and historical interest, as 
well as a moral one. We see prefigured in his deposition 
the fate of the Eastern Church in the Eastern capital of 
the Empire. As the papacy grew securely by the retreat 
from the old Rome of any secular rival, so the patriarchate 
of the new Rome was constantly, increasingly depressed by 
the presence of such a rival. Of all the great churchmen 
who flourished in the fourth century, Athanasius, Basil, 

1 ' That godly clerk and great preacher,' is the description of him in the 
English Homilies. Horn. i. 



(ii. L] INTRODUCTORY. 4 7 

the Gregories, Ambrose, only two — Augustine and Chry- 
sostoui — survived into the fifth century. But the glory of 
the Western Church was then only, in its infancy ; the 
glory of the Eastern culminated in Chrysostom. From his 
time the patriarchs of Constantinople fell more and more 
iuto the servile position of court functionaries. The work- 
ing out of that grand idea, a visible organised Catholic 
Church, uniform in doctrine and discipline, an idea which 
grew more and more as the political disintegration of the 
Empire increased, was to be accomplished by the more 
commanding, law-giving spirit of the West. Intrepid in 
spirit, inflexible of purpose, though Chrysostoin was, he 
could not subdue, he could only provoke to more violent 
opposition, the powers with which he was brought into 
collision. Ineffectual was his contest with ecclesiastical cor- 
ruption and secular tyranny, as compared with a similar 
contest waged by his Western contemporary, Ambrose ; in- 
effectual also were the efforts, after his time, of the Church 
which he represented to assert the full dignity of its position. 
VII. Chrysostom, and the contemporary fathers of the 
Eastern Church, naturally seem very remote from us ; 
but, in fact, they are nearer to us in their modes of thought 
than many who in point of time are less distant. They 
were brought up in the study of that Greek literature with 
which we are familiar. Philosophy had not stiffened into 
scholasticism. The ethics of Chrysostom are substantially 
the same with the ethics of Butler. So, again, Eastern 
fathers of the fourth century are far more nearly allied to 
us in theology than writers of a few centuries later. If 
we are to look to 6 the rock ' whence our Anglican liturgy 
' was hewn,' and 'to the hole of the pit ' whence Anglican 
reformed theology i was digged,' we must turn our eyes, 
above all other directions, to the Eastern Church and the 
Eastern fathers. It was observed by Mr. Alexander Knox, 1 
that the earlier days of the Greek Church seem resplen- 

1 ' Remains.' vol. iii. Letters to Dr. Woodward and Mrs. Hannah More. • 



8 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Cn. I. 

dent with a glow of simple, fervent, piety, such as in a 
Church, as a whole, has never since been seen ; and that 
this condition is strikingly in harmony with our own 
liturgy, so overflowing with sublime aspirations, so Catho- 
lic, so free, not bearing the impress of any one system of 
theology, but containing what is best in all — holding 
dogma firmly, but not inculcating it in a hard, dogmatic 
spirit. We may detect in Chrysostom the germ of me- 
diaeval corruptions, of Mariolatry, of invocation of saints, 
of a sensuous conception of the change effected in the holy 
elements in the Eucharist ; but these are the raw material 
of error, not yet wrought into definite shape. The Bishop 
of Eome is recognised, as will be seen from Chrysostom's 
correspondence with Innocent, as a great potentate, whose 
intercessions are to be solicited in time of trouble and 
difficulty, and to whose judgment much deference is to be 
paid, but by no means as a supreme ruler in Christendom. 
Thus, the tone of Chrysostom's language is far more 
congenial to that of our own Church than of the mediaeval 
or present Church of Rome. In his habit of referring to 
Holy Scripture as the ultimate source and basis of all true 
doctrine, ' so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may 
be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man as an 
article of faith ; ' in his careful endeavour to ascertain 
the real meaning of Scripture, not seeking for fanciful 
or mystical interpretations, or supporting preconceived 
theories, but patiently labouring, with a mixture of can- 
dour, reverence, and common sense, to ascertain the exact 
literal sense of each passage; — in these points, no less 
than in his theology, he bears an affinity to the best minds 
of our own reformed Church, and fairly represents that faith 
of the Catholic Church before the disruption of East and 
West in which Bishop Ken desired to die ; while his fervent 
~piety, and his apostolic zeal as a preacher of righteousness 
must command the admiration of all earnest Christians, to 
whatever country, age, or Church, they may belong. 






CHAPTEE II. 

FROM HIS BIRTH TO HIS APPOINTMENT TO THE OFFICE OF READER, 
A.D. 345 OR A.D. 347 TO A.J). 370. 

It has been well remarked by Sir Henry Savile, in the 
preface to his noble edition of Chrysostoni's works, pub- 
lished in 1612, that, as with great rivers, so often with 
great men, the middle and the close of their career are 
dignified and distingnished, bnt the primary source and 
early progress of the stream are difficult to ascertain and 
trace. No one, he says, has been able to fix the exact 
date, the year, and the consulship of Chrysostom's birth. 
This is true ; but at the same time his birth, parentage, 
and education are not involved in such obscurity as sur- 
rounds the earliest years of some other great luminaries 
of the Eastern Church ; his own friend, for instance, 
Theodore, Bishop of Mopsuestia, and yet more notably, 
the great Athanasius. 

There is little doubt that his birth occurred not later 
than the year a.d. 347, and some probability that it should 
be placed two years earlier ; 1 and there is no doubt that 

1 The date may be approximated was in banishment from 370 to 378, 
by the following landmarks. He was and died during the Council of Con- 
about twenty when he attended the stantinople in 381. If, then, he or- 
lectures of Libanius {Epist. ad Vid. dained Chrysostom reader just before 
Jim. vol. i. p. 601). "We may allow his banishment in 370, and deacon 
two years for his study there, and just before his departure for Con- 
beginning to practise as a lawyer. stantinople, we get 345 for the year 
He was then three years a catechumen of Chrysostom's birth. He was five 
under the Bishop Meletius (Pa/lad. years a deacon (Pallad. c. v.), which 
Dial. c. v.) : after this, six years were brings us to 386, and twelve years a 
spent in monastic retirement, return- priest, which brings us to 398, the 
ing from which he was ordained year in which he was elected to the 
deacon by Meletius. Now Meletius see of Constantinople. If we accept 



10 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHEYSOSTOM. [Ch. H. 

Antiocli in Syria was the place of his birth, that his 
mother's name was Anthusa, his father's Secundus, and 
that both were well born. His mother was, if not ac- 
tually baptised, very favourably inclined to Christianity, 1 
and, indeed, a woman of no ordinary piety. The father 
had attained the rank of 'magister militum' in the Im- 
perial army of Syria, and therefore enjoyed the title of 
6 illustris.' He died when his son John was an infant, 
leaving a young widow, about twenty years of age, in 
comfortable circumstances, but harassed by the difficulties 
and anxieties of her unprotected condition as mistress of 
a household in days when servants were slaves, and life in 
large cities altogether unguarded by such securities as are 
familiar to us. Greatly did she dread the responsibility of 
bringing up a son in one of the most turbulent and dissolute 
capitals of the empire. Nothing, she afterwards 2 declared 
to him, could have enabled her to pass through such a 
furnace of trial but a consoling sense of divine support, 
and the delight of contemplating the image of her hus- 
band as reproduced in his son. How long a sister older 
than himself may have lived we do not know; but the 
conversation between him and his mother when he was 
meditating a retreat into a monastery, seems to imply 
that he was the only surviving child. All her love — all 
her care — all her means and energies, were concentrated 
on the boy destined to become so great a man, and exhi- 
biting even in childhood no common ability and aptitude 
for learning. But her chief anxiety was to train him in 
pious habits, and to preserve him uncontaminated from 
the pollutions of the vicious city in which they resided. 

347 for the year of his birth, no in- vours to prove that she was a Pagan, 

terval is allowed between his going to in order to account for the delay in 

the school of Libanius and becoming Chrysostom's baptism, but his reasons 

a catechumen (vide Tillemont, vol. xi. are far from convincing. 

p. 547). 2 De Sacerd. 1. i. c. 5. 
1 Wall, on Infant Baptism, endea- 



Ch. II.] CHRISTIAN WOMEN AT ANTIOCH. 11 

She was to him as Monica to Augustine, as Nonna to 
Gregory Nazianzum. 

The great influence, indeed, of women upon the Chris- 
tianity of domestic life in that age is not a little remark- 
able. The Christians were not such a pure and single- 
minded community as they had been. The refining fires 
of persecution which burnt up the chaff of hypocrisy or 
indifference were now extinguished ; Christianity had a 
recognised position ; her bishops were in kings' courts. 
The natural consequences inevitably followed this attain- 
ment of security ; there were more Christians, but not 
more who were zealous ; there were many who hung very 
loosely to the Church — many who fluctuated between the 
Church and Paganism. In the great Eastern cities of 
the Empire, especially Alexandria, Antioch, Constanti- 
nople, the mass of the so-called Christian population was 
largely infected by the dominant vices — inordinate luxury, 
sensuality, selfish avarice, and display. Christianity was 
in part Paganised long before it had made any appreci- 
able progress towards the destruction of Paganism. But 
the sincere and ardent piety of many amongst the women 
kept alive in many a home the flame of Christian faith 
which would otherwise have been smothered. The Em- 
peror Julian imagined that his efforts to resuscitate 
Paganism would have been successful in Antioch but for 
the strenuous opposition of the Christian women. He 
complains ' that they were permitted by their husbands 
to take anything out of the house to bestow it upon the 
Galilseans, or to give away to the poor, while they would 
not expend the smallest trifle upon the worship of the 
gods.' l The efforts also of the Governor Alexander, who 
was left in Antioch by the Emperor to carry forward his 
designs of Pagan reformation, were principally baffled 
through this female influence. He found that the men 

1 Julian Misopogon, p. 363. 



12 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. II. 

would often consent to attend the temples and sacrifices, 
but afterwards generally repented and retracted their ad- 
herence. This relapse Libanius the sophist, in a letter l 
to the Governor, ascribes to the home influence of the 
women — c When the men are out of doors,' he says, ' they 
obey you who give them the best advice, and they ap- 
proach the altars ; but when they get home, their minds 
undergo a change ; they are wrought upon by the tears 
and entreaties of their wives, and they again withdraw 
from the altars of the gods.' 

Anthusa did not marry again ; very possibly she was 
deterred from contracting a second marriage by religious 
scruples which Chrysostom himself would certainly have 
approved. 2 The Pagans themselves admired those women 
who dedicated themselves to a single life, or abstained 
from marrying again. Chrysostom himself informs us 
that when he began to attend the lectures of Libanius, 
his master inquired who and what his parents were ; and 
on being told that he was the son of a widow who at the 
age of forty had lost her husband twenty years, he ex- 
claimed in a tone of mingled jealousy and admiration : 
' Heavens ! what women these Christians have ! ' 3 

What instruction he received in early boyhood, beside 
his mother's careful moral and religious training ; whether 
he was sent, a common custom among Christian parents in 
that age, 4 to be taught by the monks in one of the neigh- 
bouring monasteries, where he may have imbibed an early 
taste for monastic retirement, we know not. He was 
designed, however, not for the clerical but for the legal 
profession, and at the age of twenty he began to attend 
the lectures of one of the first sophists of the day, capable 
of giving him that secular training and learning which 
would best enable him to cope with men of the world. 

1 Epist. 1057. 4 Advers. Oppug. Vitse Monastic. 

2 Epist. ad Viduam Jun. vol. i. lib. iii. c. 11. 

3 Ibid. p. 601. 



Cn. II.] THE SCHOOL OF LIBANIUS. 13 

Libanius had acliieved a reputation as a teacher of general 
literature, rhetoric, and philosophy, and as an able and 
eloquent defender of Paganism, not only in his native city 
Antioch, but in the Empire at large. He was the friend 
and correspondent of Julian, and on amicable terms with 
the Emperors Yalens and Theodosius. He had now re- 
turned to Antioch after lengthened residence in Athens 
(where the chair of rhetoric had been offered to him but 
declined), in Mcomedia, and in Constantinople. 1 In at- 
tending daily lectures at his school, the young Chrysostom 
became conversant with the best classical Greek authors, 
both poets and philosophers. Of their sentiments he in 
later life retained little admiration, 2 and to the perusal of 
their writings he probably seldom or never recurred for 
profit or recreation, but his retentive memory enabled him 
to the last to point and adorn his arguments with quota- 
tions from Homer, Plato, and the Tragcedians. In the 
school of Libanius also he began to practise those nascent 
powers of eloquence which were destined to win for him so 
mighty a fame, as well as the appellation of Chrysostom os, 
or the Golden Mouth, by which, rather than by his proper 
name of John, he will be known to the end of time. 3 
Libanius, in a letter to Chrysostom, praises highly a 
speech composed by him in honour of the emperors, and 
says they were happy in having so excellent a panegyrist. 4 
The Pagan sophist helped to forge the weapons which were 
afterwards to be skilfully employed against the cause to 
which he was devoted. When he was on his death-bed, 
he was asked by his friends who was in his opinion ca- 
pable of succeeding him ? ' It would have been John,' he 
replied, ' had not the Christians stolen him from us.' 5 
But it did not immediately appear that the learned advo- 

1 Liban. de fortuna sua, p. 13-137. * Quoted by Isidore of Pelusium, 

2 See concluding chapter. 1. 2, Ep. 42. 

3 Ibid. 5 Sozomen viii. c. 2. 



14 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. II. 

cate of Paganism was nourishing a traitor ; for Chrysostoni 
had not yet been baptized, and began to seek an opening 
for his powers in secnlar fields of activity. 1 He commenced 
practice as a lawyer; some of his speeches gained great 
admiration, and were highly commended by his old master 
Libanius. A brilliant career of worldly ambition was open 
to him. The profession of the law was at that time the 
great avenue to civil distinction. The amount of litigation 
was enormous. One hundred and fifty advocates were re- 
quired for the court of the Praetorian Prefect of the East 
alone. The display of talent in the law courts frequently 
obtained for a man the government of a province, whence 
the road was open to those higher dignities of vice-prefect, 
prefect, patrician, consul, which were honoured by the 
title of ' illustrious.' 2 

But the pure and upright disposition of the youthful 
advocate recoiled from the licentiousness which corrupted 
society ; from the avarice, fraud, and artifice which marked 
the transactions of men of business ; from the chicanery 
and rapacity that sullied the profession which he had en- 
tered. 3 He was accustomed to say later in life that ' the 
Bible was the fountain for watering the soul.' If he had 
drunk of the classical fountains in the school of Libanius, 
he had imbibed draughts yet deeper of the spiritual well- 
spring in quiet study of Holy Scripture at home. And like 
many another in that degraded age, his whole soul re- 
volted from the glaring contrast presented by the ordinary 
life of the world around him to that standard of holiness 
which was held up in the Gospels. 

He had formed also an intimate friendship with a young 
man his equal in station and age, - by whose influence he 

1 Isidore Pel. 1. 2 Ep. 42 ; De 3 Ibid iii. 53 ; for an account of the 
Sacerdot. i. c. 4. character of lawyers at this period, 

2 Gibbon iii. 52, note. Milman's see Amm. Marcellinus, lxxx. e. 4. 
edition. 



Cu. II] FRIENDSHIP WITH BASIL. 15 

was diverted more and more from secular life, and even- 
tually induced altogether to abandon it. This was Basil, 
who will come before us in the celebrated work on the 
priesthood. He must not be confounded with the great 
Basil, 1 Bishop of Csesarea, in Cappadocia, who was some 
fifteen years older than Chrysostom, having been born in 
a.d. 329, nor with Basil, Bishop of Seleucia, who was pre- 
sent at the Council of Chalcedon in a.d. 451, and must 
therefore have been considerably younger. Perhaps he 
may be identified with a Basil, Bishop of Eaphanea in 
Syria, not far from Antioch, who attended the Council of 
Constantinople in a.d. 381. 

Chrysostom has described his friendship with Basil in 
affecting language: 2 'I had many genuine and true 
friends, men who understood and strictly observed the 
laws of friendship ; but one there was out of the many 
who exceeded them all in attachment to me, and strove to 
leave them all behind in the race, even as much as they 
themselves surpassed ordinary acquaintances. He was 
one of those who accompanied me at all times ; we en- 
gaged in the same studies, and were instructed by the 
same teachers ; in our zeal and interest for the subjects on 
which we worked we were one. As we went to our lec- 
tures or returned from them, we were accustomed to take 
counsel together on the line of life it would be best to 
adopt ; and here, too, we appeared to be unanimous.' 

Basil early determined this question for himself in 
favour of monasticism; he decided, as Chrysostom ex- 
presses it, to follow the 'true philosophy.' This occa- 
sioned the first interruption to their intercourse. Chry- 
sostom, soon after the age of twenty, had embarked on a 
secular career, and could not immediately make up his 
mind to tread in the footsteps of his friend. 'The 
balance,' he says, 'was no longer even'; the scale of 

1 As Socrates, b. vi. c. 3, has done. 2 De Sacerdot. 1. i. c. i. 



16 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CTIRYSOSTOM. [Oh. II. 

Basil mounted, while that of Chrysostom was depressed, 
by the weight of earthly interests and desires. 1 But the 
decisive act of Basil made a deep impression on his mind ; 
separation from his friend only increased his attachment 
to him, and his aversion from life in the world. He 
began to withdraw more from ordinary occupations and 
pleasures, and to spend more of his time in the study of 
Holy Scripture. He formed acquaintance with Meletius, 
the deeply respected Catholic Bishop of Antioch, and 
after three years, the usual period of probation for cate- 
chumens, was baptized by hiim 

A natural question arises, why was he not baptized 
before, since his mother was a Christian, and there is 
abundant evidence that infant baptism was and had been 
the ordinary practice of the Church ? 2 In attempting a 
solution of the difficulty, it will be proper to mention first 
certain reasons for delaying baptism which were prevalent 
in that age, and which may partially have influenced the 
mind of Chrysostom's mother or himself. It may sound 
paradoxical to say that an exaggerated estimation of the 
import and effect of baptism contributed in two ways to 
its delay. But such appears to have been the case. It 
was regarded by many as the most complete and final 
purgation of past sin, and the most solemn pledge of a 
new and purified life for the future. To sin, therefore, 
before baptism was comparatively harmless, if in the 
waters of baptism the guilty stains could be washed 
away ; but sin after the reception of that holy sacrament 
was almost, if not altogether, unpardonable — at least 
fraught with the most tremendous peril. Hence some 
would delay baptism as many now delay repentance, from 
a secret or conscious reluctance to take a decisive step, 
and renounce the pleasures of sin ; and under the comfort- 

1 De Sacerdot. c. iii. 2 See references in Bingham, b. xi. 

vol.iii. Wall, vol. ii. 



Ch. II.] REASONS FOR DELAY OF BAPTISM. 17 

able persuasion that some day, by submitting to baptism, 
they would free themselves from the responsibilities of 
their past life. Others, again, were deterred from binding 
themselves under so solemn a covenant by a distrust of 
their ability to fulfil their vows, and a timorous dread of 
the eternal consequences if they failed. Against these 
misconceptions of the true nature and proper use of the 
sacrament, the great Basil, the two Gregories, and Chry- 
sostom himself contend ] with a vehemence and indigna- 
tion which proves them to have been common. Many 
parents thought they would allow the fitful and unstable 
season of youth to pass before they irrevocably bound 
their children under the most solemn engagements of 
their Christian calling. The children, when they grew 
up, inherited their scruples, and so the sacrament was 
indefinitely deferred. 

It is not impossible that such feelings may have in- 
fluenced Chrysostom's mother and himself; but consider- 
ing the natural and healthy character of his piety, which 
seems to have grown by a gentle and unintermitting pro- 
gress from his childhood, they do not seem very probable 
in his case. A more cogent cause for the delay may 
perhaps be found in the distracted state of the Church in 
Antioch, which lasted, with increasing complications, from 
a.d. 330, or fifteen years prior to Chrysostom's birth, up 
to the time of his baptism by Meletius, when a brighter 
day was beginning to dawn. 

The vicissitudes of the Church in Antioch during that 
period form a curious, though far from pleasing, picture of 
the inextricable difficulties, the deplorable schisms, into 
which the Church at large was plunged by the Arian con- 
troversy. Two years after the Council of Mce, a.d. 327, 

1 Basil exhort, ad Baptismum ; Apost. vol. ix. horn. i. in fine, and in 
Greg. Nazianz. Orat. 40 de Bapt. ; Illumin. Catechesis, vol. ii. p. 223. 
Nyssen de Bapt. ; Chrysost. in Acta 



18 LIFE AND TDIES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. LT. 

the Arians, through the assistance of Constantia, the 
Emperor's sister, won the favour of Constantine. He lost 
no time during this season of prosperity in procuring the 
deposition of Catholic bishops. Eminent among these 
was Eustathius, Bishop of Antioch. He was ejected by a 
synod held in his own city on false charges of Sabellianism 
and adultery. 1 An Arian bishop, Euphronius, was ap- 
pointed, but the Catholic congregation indignantly with- 
drew to hold their services in another quarter of the town, 
on the opposite side of the Orontes. 2 The see remained 
for some time entirely in the hands of the Arians. TVTien 
the Council of Sardica met in a.d. 842, and the Arian 
faction seceded from it to hold a Council of their own in 
Philipopolis, Stephen, Bishop of Antioch, was their 
president. He was deposed in a.t>. 349 by the Emperor 
Constantius, having been detected as an accomplice in 
an infamous plot against some envoys from the Western 
Church. 3 But f uno avulso non deficit alter; ' he was suc- 
ceed by another Arian, the eunuch Leontius. 4 He tried 
to conciliate the Catholics by an artful and equivocating 
policy, of which his manner of chanting the doxology was 
an instance. The Arian form of it was e Glory be to the 
Father by the Son in the Holy Ghost ' ; this the bishop 
was accustomed to slur in such an indistinct voice that 
the prepositions could not be clearly if at all heard, while 
he joined loudly in the second part of the hymn where all 
were agreed. 5 He died towards the close of a.d. 357, 
when the see was fraudulently seized by Eudoxius, Bishop 
of Germanicia. He favoured the extreme Arians so 
openly that the Semi-Arians appealed to the Emperor 

1 Philostorgius ii. 7 ; Socrates i. 23 ; from the rank of presbyter because he 
Theod. i. 21. was a eunuch, in accordance with the 

2 Socr. i. 24 : Theod. i. 22. provision of the Council of Nice. c. i. 

3 Athanas. Hist. Arian. 20, 21; Labbe i. p. 28. 

Theod. ii. 0, 10. 3 Sozoni. iii. 20 ; Theod. ii. 24. 

4 Socr. ii. 26: he had been deposed 



Ch. IT.] ARIAN BISHOPS OF ANTIOCH. 19 

Constantius to summon a General Council. Their request 
was granted ; but the Arians, fearing that the Catholics 
and Semi- Arians would coalesce to overwhelm them, art- 
fully suggested that Rimini, the place proposed for the 
Council, was too distant for the Eastern prelates, and that 
the Assembly should be divided, part meeting at Rimini, 
and part at Nice. 1 Their suggestion was accepted, 
and the result is well known. Partly by arguments, 
partly by artifices and delays which wore out the 
strength and patience of the members, the Arians 
completely carried the day; the creed of Rimini was 
ordered by the Emperor to be everywhere signed, 
and in the words of Jerome, ' the world groaned and 
found itself Arian.' 2 An Arian synod sat at Constan - 
tinople. Macedonius the archbishop, being considered 
too moderate, was deposed, and Eudoxius, the usurper 
of Antioch, was elevated to the see in his stead ; 3 and 
Meletius, Bishop of Sebaste, in Armenia, was translated 
to the vacant see of Antioch, a.d. SQL But in him the 
Arians had mistaken their man. He was one of those 
who attended more to the practical moral teaching than 
to the abstract theology of Christianity ; and, being not 
perhaps very precise in his language on doctrinal points, 
he had been reckoned an Arian. 4 After his elevation to 
the see of Antioch, he confined himself in his discourses 
to those practical topics on which all could agree. But 
this was not allowed to -last long. The Emperor Con- 
stantius paid a visit to Antioch soon after the appoint- 
ment of Meletius, and he was instigated by the Arians to 
put the bishop to a crucial test. He was commanded to 
preach on Proverbs viii. 22. c The Lord possessed me ' 

1 Sozom. iv. 12-16 ; Theod. ii. 26. 2 Kufin. I. 21; Socr. ii. 36,37; Sozom. 

In consequence of an earthquake at iv. 19; Jerome c. Lucif. 18, 19. 
Nice, it was removed to Seleucia in 3 Socr. ii. 42, 43. 
Isauria. 4 Sozom. iv. 28. 

c 2 



20 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. II. 

(Septuagint e/cticts, that was the fatal word) c in the begin- 
ning,' &g. The interpretation put on the word c formed ' 
(s-cTta-s) would reveal the man. Two other bishops dis- 
coursed first upon the same text ; George of Laodicea, 
Acacius of Csesarea. The first construed the passage in 
a purely Arian sense : the Word was a fCTiafxa, ' a created 
being,' though the first in time and rank ; the second 
preacher took a more moderate line. Then came the 
turn of Meletius; short-hand writers took down every 
word as it fell. Meletius was a mild and temperate man, 
but he had his convictions, and he was no coward. To 
the horror of the Arians (the secret joy, perhaps, of those 
who disliked him) he entirely dissented from the Arian 
interpretation. The people loudly applauded his sermon, 
and called aloud for some brief and compendious state- 
ment of his doctrine. Meletius replied by a symbolical 
action ; he held up three fingers, and then closing two of 
them he said, c Our minds conceive of three, but we 
speak as to one.' 1 This was conclusive; the objection- 
able prelate was banished to Melitene, his native place 
in Armenia, thirty days after he had entered Antioch. 
Euzoius, who had been an intimate friend and constant 
associate of Arius himself, was put nto the see. The 
Church of Antioch now split into three parties ; the old 
and rigid orthodox set, who, ever since the deposition of 
Eustathius in a.d. 327, had adhered to his doctrine, and 
were called after his name ; the moderate Catholics, who 
regarded Meletius as their bishop ; and the Arians under 
Euzoius. The synod which had deposed him published a 
thoroughly Arian creed, which declared the Son to have 
been created out of nothing, aud to be unlike the Father 
both in substance and will. 2 

This first banishment of Meletius, which occurred in 
a.d. 361, did not last long. Julian, who became Emperor 

1 Thcod. ii. 31 : Sozom. iv. 28. 2 Soer. ii. 45. 



Ch. il] divisions m the church at antioch. 21 

the same year, recalled all the prelates who had been 
exiled in the two preceding reigns ; partly, perhaps, from 
a really liberal feeling, partly from a willingness to foment 
the internal dissensions of the Church by placing the 
rival bishops in close antagonism. Athanasius returned to 
Alexandria amidst great ovations. 1 One of the questions 
which occupied the attention of a synod convened by him 
was the schism of Antioch. Eusebius, Bishop of Vercelli, 
a staunch Italian friend of Athanasius, was despatched to 
Antioch in order to heal the division ; but he had been un- 
happily anticipated by another Western prelate, Lucifer 
of Cagliari, in Sardinia, a brave defender of orthodoxy, 
for which with Eusebius he had suffered exile, but a most 
unskilful peacemaker. He only complicated the existing 
confusion by consecrating as bishop a priest of the old 
Eustathian party, named Paidinus, instead of strengthen- 
ing the hands of Meletius. 2 The unhappy Church at 
Antioch, where the whole Christian community amounted 
to not more than 100,000 souls, 3 was thus torn to tatters. 
There were now three bishops — the Arian Euzoius ; Mele- 
tius, generally acknowledged by the Eastern Church, and 
Paulinus by the Western. And, as if these rival heads 
were not sufficient, the Apollinarians soon afterwards 
added a fourth. But the mild, prudent, and charitable 
disposition of Aleletius procured for him the affection and 
esteem of the largest and most respectable part of the 
population, as well as of the common people. Even when 
he was banished for the first time after he been only a 
month in Antioch, the populace endeavoured to stone the 
prefect as he was conducting the bishop out of the city. 
He was saved by Meletius himself, who threw a part of his 
own mantle round him, to protect him from their fury. 

1 The Arian Bishop George having 2 Rufin.i. 27 ; Socr.iii. 6 ; Soz. x. 12. 

been murdered by the Pagan popula- 3 Chrysost. Horn, in Matt. 85, vol 

tion, Soer. iii. 5, vii. p. 762. 



22 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHEYSOSTOM. [Ch. IT. 

And after he returned from exile the popularity of Mele- 
tius increased. In paintings on the walls of houses and 
engravings on signet rings, his face was often represented, 
and parents gave his name to their children both to per- 
petuate his memory and to remind them of an example 
which was worthy of their imitation. 1 Once more in 
a.T). 867, and yet again in a.d. 370 or a.d, 371, when the 
Arians recovered the favour of the Court under the Em- 
peror Yalens, he was sent into exile, but he returned after 
the death of Yalens in a.d. 378 ; and it was as Bishop of 
Antioch that he presided over the Council of Constan- 
tinople in a.d. 381, and died during its session. 2 His 
funeral oration, pronounced by Gregory Nyssen, is extant. 
The final reparation of that schism which he nobly and 
constantly endeavoured to heal, was not effected for nearly 
twenty years, when Chrysostom, the Archbishop of Con- 
stantinople, accomplished that good service for his native 
city. 

It is interesting to dwell at some length upon the 
history of the Church in Antioch at this period, because 
it represents the painful feuds in which the Church at 
large became entangled through the baneful influence of 
the Arian controversy, that first great blow to the unity 
of Christendom ; when bishop was set up against bishop, 
and rival councils manufactured rival creeds, when vio- 
lence, and intrigue, and diplomatic arts were employed too 
often by both sides to gain their ends. But the distracted 
state of the Church at Antioch also supplies a possible 
answer to the question why the baptism of Chrysostom 
was delayed so long. One of the reasons frequently 
alleged for deferring the reception of that sacrament was 
the desire of the candidate to receive it at the hands of 
some particular bishop. 3 Now who were the bishops of 

1 Chrysosfc. Horn, in Melet. 3 Greg. Nazian. Orat. de Bapt. 40 ; 

2 Tillemont viii. 374, Chrysost. Ep. 132 ad Gremellum. 



Ch. H.] BAPTISM OF CHRYSOSTOM BY MELETIUS. 23 

Antioch during the infancy and boyhood of* Chrysostom ? 
The Arians were in possession of the see at the time of 
his birth, and retained it till a.d. 361, when Meletius was 
appointed, but banished almost immediately. The pious 
sensible mother and the well-disposed youth would not 
unnaturally hold aloof from a Church over which pre- 
sided such prelates as Stephen, Leontius, Eudoxius, 
Euzoius. Their minds may well have been so sorely 
perplexed and suspended between the claims of opposing 
factions as to delay the reception of baptism from the 
hands of any. 

But. the prudent, conciliatory policy, the mild and ami- 
able disposition of Meletius, would attract the sympathy 
and respect of an affectionate, pious, and sensible cha- 
racter, such as was the youthful Chrysostom. He was 
about twenty when Meletius was banished in 367 by the 
Emperor Yalens ; but the bishop returned in a short time, 
when Chrysostom's friend Basil had withdrawn into 
religious seclusion, and he himself was feeling an in- 
creasing repugnance to the world. He presented himself 
as a candidate for baptism to the bishop, and after the 
usual three years of preparation as a catechumen, was 
admitted to that solemn initiation into the Christian 
covenant. 

There can be no doubt that baptism, from whatever 
cause delayed, must on that very account have come home 
to the recipient with a peculiar solemnity of meaning. 
It was an important epoch, often a decisive turning-point 
in the life, a deliberate renunciation of the world, and dedi- 
cation of the whole man to God. So Chrysostom evidently 
felt it ; from this point we enter on a new phase in bis life. 
He becomes for a time an enthusiastic ascetic, and then 
settles down into that more tranquil, and steady, but in- 
tense glow of piety and love to God which burned with 
undiminished force till the close of his career. 



24 LIFE AXD TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Oh. II. 

The wise Bishop Meletius, however, desired to employ 
his powers in some sphere of active labour in the Church. 
As a preliminary step to this end, he ordained him soon 
after his baptism to the office of reader. This order 
appears not to have been instituted in the Church before 
the third century ; at least, there is no allusion to it in 
writers of the first two centuries, and frequent references 
in writers of the third and fourth. 1 The duty of readers 
was to read those portions of Scripture which were intro- 
duced into the first service or "' Missa Catechumenorum,' 
which preceded the Communion, or £ Missa Fidelium,' so 
called because only the baptized were admitted to it. 
They read from the Pulpitum or Tribunal Ecclesise, or 
Ambo, the reading-desk of the Church, which must not 
be confounded with the Bema, or Tribunal of the Sanctu- 
ary. This last was identical with the altar, or rather the 
steps of the altar, and no rank lower than that of deacon 
was permitted to read from this position. By the Novells 
of Justinian, 2 eighteen was fixed as the youngest age at 
which anyone could be ordained to this office. But pre- 
vious to this limitation, it was not uncommon to appoint 
mere children. Csesarius of Aries is said to have been 
made a reader at the tender age of seven, and Victor 
Uticensis, describing the cruelties of the Yandalic perse- 
cution in Africa, affirms that among 500 clergy or more 
who perished by sword or famine, were many ' infant 
readers.' 3 

The ceremony of ordination appears to have been very 
simple. The Fourth Council of Carthage ordains that the 
bishop should testify before the congregation to the purity, 
the faith, and conversation of the candidate. Then in 
their presence he is to place a Bible in his hands with 

1 Tertullian is the first who men- 2 Just. Nov. cxxiii. c. 13. 

ions it ; de Prescript, c. 41. :i Quoted in Bingham, vol.i. p. 378. 



Cu. II. ] HIS ORDINATION AS A KEADEK. 25 

these words : ' Take thou this book and be thou a reader 
of the word of God, which office if thou discharge faith- 
fully and profitably thou shalt have part with those who 
have ministered the word of God.' ! 

1 Counc. Carth. iv. c. 8. Labbe, vol. ii. 



26 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. HI. 



CHAPTEE III. 

COMMENCEMENT OF ASCETIC LIFE — STUDY UNDER DIODORUS — FOR- 
MATION OF AN ASCETIC BROTHERHOOD THE LETTERS TO THEO- 
DORE. A.D. 370. 

The enthusiasm of minds newly awakened to a full per- 
ception of Christian holiness, and a deep sense of Christian 
obligations, was in early times seldom contented with any- 
thing short of complete separation from the world. The 
oriental temperament especially has been at all times 
inclined to passionate extremes. It oscillates between 
the most abandoned licentionsness and intense asceticism. 
The second is the corrective of the first ; where the disease 
is desperate the remedies must be violent. Chrysostom, 
as will be perceived through out his life, was never carried 
to fanatical extremes; a certain sobermindedness, and 
calm, practical good sense eminently distinguished him, 
though mingled with burning zeal. But in his youth 
especially he was not exempt from the spirit of the age 
and country in which he lived. He irresistibly gravitated 
towards that kind of life which his friend Basil had 
already adopted — a life of retirement, contemplation, and 
pious study — ' the philosophy ' of Christianity, as it was 
called at that time. 1 

It does not appear that Basil had actually joined any 
monastic community, but merely that he was leading a 
life of seclusion, and practising some of the usual monas- 
tic austerities. Chrysostom, indeed, distinctly asserts 
that, previous to his own baptism, their intercourse had 

1 Vide quotations in Suicer Thcsaur. bxib verbo (piAoaofrt ?. 



Cu. III.] PROJECT FOR RETIRING INTO SECLUSION. 27 

not been entirely broken off ; only that it was impossible 
for him, who had his business in the law courts and found 
his recreation in the theatre, to be so acceptable to one 
who never entered public places, and who was wholly 
devoted to meditation, study, and prayer. 1 Their inter- 
course was necessarily more rare, though their friendship 
was substantially unshaken. 6 When, however, I had 
myself also lifted my head a little above this worldly 
flood, he received me with open arms ' (probably referring 
here to his baptism or preparation for it) ; ' but even then 
I was not able to maintain my former equality, for he had 
the advantage of me in point of time, and having mani- 
fested the greatest diligence, he had attained a very lofty 
standard, and was ever soaring beyond me.' 2 

This disparity, however, could not diminish their natural 
affection for one another; and Basil at length obtained 
Chrysostom's consent to a plan which he had frequently 
urged — that they should abandon their present homes and 
live together in some quiet abode, there to strengthen 
each other in undisturbed study, meditation, and prayer. 
But this project of the young enthusiasts was for a time 
frustrated by the irresistible entreaties of Chrysostom's 
mother, that he would not deprive her of his protection, 
companionship, and help. The scene is described by 
Chrysostom himself, 3 with a dramatic power worthy of 
Greek tragedy. It reminds the reader of some of those 
long and stately, yet elegant and affecting, narratives of 
the messenger who, at the close of the play, describes the 
final scene which is not represented. Certainly it bespeaks 
the scholar of a man who had made his pupils familiar 
with the best classical writers in Greek. s When she 
knew that we were meditating this course, my mother 
took me by the right hand and led me into her own cham- 
ber, and there, seating herself near the bed on which she 

1 De Sacerd. i. c. i. " Ibid. c. 3. 3 Ibid. c. 5. 



23 LIFE AXD TBIES OF ST. CKRYSOSTOM. [Ch. in. 

had given birth, to me, wept fountains of tears ; to which 
she added words of lamentation more pitiable even than 
the tears themselves. "I was not long permitted to 
enjoy the virtue of thy father, my child ; — so it seemed 
good to God. My travail pangs at your birth, were quickly 
succeeded by his death. : bringing orphanhood upon thee, 
and upon me an untimely widowhood, with all those mise- 
ries of widowhood which those only who have experienced 
them can fairly understand. For no description can ap- 
proach the reality of that storm and tempest which is 
undergone by her who having but lately issued from her 
father's home, and being unskilled in the ways of the 
world, is suddenly plunged into grief insupportable, and 
compelled to endure anxieties too great for her sex and 
age. For she has to correct the negligence, to watch 
against the ill-doings of her slaves, to baffle the insidious 
schemes of kinsfolk, to meet with a brave front the impu- 
dent threats and harshness of tax collectors." ' l 

She then describes minutely the expense, and labour, 
and constant anxiety which attended the education of a 
son ; how she had refrained from all thoughts of second 
marriage, that she might bestow her undivided energies, 
time, and means upon him ; how amply it had all been 
rewarded by the delight of his presence, recalling the 
image of her husband. And now that he had grown up, 
would he leave her absolutely forlorn ? i In return for 
all these my services to you, 5 she cried, c I implore you 
this one favour only — not to make me a second time a 
widow, or to revive the grief which time has lulled. Wait 
for my death — perhaps I shall soon be gone ; when you 
have committed my body to the ground, and mingled my 
bones with your father's bones, then you will be free to 
embark on any sea you please.' Such an appeal to his 

1 For the oppressive manner in which taxes were collected bee Gibbon, iii. 78. 
• I seq.j Milman's edit. 



Ch. III.: CHARACTER OF ASCETIC BROTHERHOOD. 29 

sense of filial gratitude and duty could not be disregarded. 
Chrysostom yielded to his mother's entreaties ; although 
Basil did not desist from urging his favourite scheme. 1 

At the same time he assimilated his life at home as 
much as possible to the condition of a monk. He entirely 
withdrew from all worldly occupations and amusements. 
He seldom went out of the house ; he strengthened his 
mind by study, his spirit by prayer, and subdued his body 
by vigils and fasting, and sleeping upon the bare ground. 
He maintained an almost constant silence, that his 
thoughts might be kept abstracted from mundane things, 
and that no irritable or slanderous speech might escape 
his lips. Some of his companions naturally lamented 
what they regarded as a morose and melancholy change. 2 

But the intercourse between him and Basil was more 
frequent than before ; and two other young men, who had 
been their fellow students at the school of Libanius, were 
persuaded to adopt the same kind of secluded life. These 
two were Maximus, afterwards Bishop of Seleucia, in 
Isauria ; and Theodore, who became Bishop of Mop- 
suestia, in Cilicia. 3 This little fraternity formed, with 
some others not named, a voluntary association of youthful 
ascetics. They did not dwell in a separate building, nor 
were they in any way established as a monastic commu- 
nity, but (like Wesley and his young friends at Oxford) 
they lived by rule, and practised monastic austerities. 
The superintendence of their studies and general conduct 
they submitted to Diodorus and Carterius, who were pre- 
sidents of monasteries in the vicinity of Antioch. 4 In 
addition to his own intrinsic merits and eminence, Dio- 
dorus claims our attention, because there can be no doubt 
that he exercised a great influence upon the minds of his 
two most distinguished scholars, Chrysostom and Theo- 

1 De Sacerd. i. c. 6. 3 Socr. vi. c. 3. 

2 Tbid. vi. c. 12. 4 Ibid. vi. 3. 



30 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. III. 

dore. Indeed, judging from the fragments of his works, 
and the notices of him by historians, it is not too much to 
say that he was the founder of a method of Biblical inter- 
pretation of which Chrysostom and Theodore became the 
most able representatives. 

He was of noble family, and the friend of Meletius, who 
confided to him and the priest Evagrius the chief care of 
his diocese during his second exile under Yalens about 
a.d. 370. And one of the first acts of Meletius, on his 
return in a.d. 378, was to make Diodorus Bishop of 
Tarsus. His writings in defence of Christianity were 
sufficiently powerful and notorious to provoke the notice 
of Julian, who, in a letter to Photinus, attacks him with 
no small asperity. 1 The Emperor finds occasion for ridi- 
cule in the pale and wrinkled face 'and the attenuated 
frame of Diodorus, wasted by his severe labours and 
ascetic practices ;' and represents these disfigurements as 
punishments from the offended gods against whom he 
had directed his pen. Being well known as a warm 
friend of Meletius, Diodorus was exposed to some risk 
from the Arian party during the exile of the bishop from 
a.d. 370-378. But he was not deterred from frequenting 
the old town on the south side of the Orontes, where the 
congregation of Meletius held their assemblies, and dili- 
gently ministering to their spiritual needs. He accepted 
no fixed stipend, but his necessities were supplied by the 
hospitality of those among whom he laboured. 2 Of his 
voluminous writings, a commentary on the Old and New 
Testament is that most frequently quoted by ecclesiastical 
writers. They expressly and repeatedly affirm that he 
adhered very closely to the literal and historical meaning 
of the text, and that he was opposed to those mystical 

J In Facund. Ilermian. pro clef. 2 Chrysost. Horn, in Diodor. vol. iii. 

triun. capit. lib. iv. c. 2 in Grail, and p. 761. 
bibl. patr. xi. p. 706. 3 Socr. vi. 3. 



Ch. III.] THEOLOGY OF DIODORUS. ol 

and allegorical interpretations of Origen and the Alex- 
drian school, which often disguised rather than elucidated 
the true significance of the passage. 1 One evil of the 
allegorical method was, that it destroyed a clear and 
critical perception of the differences between the older 
Revelation and the New. The Old Testament was regarded 
as a kind of vast enigma, containing implicitly the facts 
and doctrines of the New. To detect subtle allusions to 
the coming of our Saviour, to the events of his life, to 
his death and resurrection, in the acts, speeches, and 
gestures of persons mentioned in the Old Testament, was 
regarded as a kind of interpretation no less satisfactory 
than it was ingenious. To believe indeed that the grand 
intention running through Scripture from the beginning 
to the end, is to bring men to Jesus Christ; that the 
history of the fall of man is given to enable us to appre- 
ciate the need of a Restorer, and to estimate his work at 
its proper value ; that the history of a dispensation based 
on law enables us to accept with more thankfulness a 
dispensation of spirit ; to recognise through the history of 
the Jewish system of sacrifices the immeasurable superior- 
ity of the one great Sacrifice as the substance of previous 
shadows, the fulfilment of previous types ; to see, in fact, 
in the general course of Old Testament narrative, and in 
the voices of the prophets, intimations and hints, and sig- 
nificant parallels of the subsequent history to which they 
lead on and lead up ; — this may be reasonable, i^rofitable, 
and true : but it can be neither profitable nor true to see 
allusions, prophecies, and parallels in every minute and 
trivial detail of that earlier history. 

From this vital error Diodorus appears to have eman 
cipated himself and his disciples. He perceived, as we 
shall see Chrysostom perceived, a gradual development in 
Revelation : that the knowledge, and morality, and faith of 
men under the Old Dispensation were less advanced than 

1 Socr. yi. 3. 



32 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. ni. 

those of men who lived under the Eew. One instance 
niust suffice. He remarks that the Mosaic precept, di- 
recting the brother of a man who had died childless to 
raise up posterity to his brother by marrying his wife, 
was given for the consolation of men who had as yet re- 
ceived no clear promise respecting a resurrection from the 
dead. 1 There is an approach to what some might deem 
rationalistic criticism, when he affirms that the speech of 
God to men in the Old Testament was not an external 
voice, but an inward spiritual intimation. When, for 
instance, it is said that God gave a command to Adam, it 
is evident, he says, that it was not made by a sound 
audible to the bodily ear, but that God impressed the 
knowledge of the command upon him according to His 
own proper energy, and that when Adam had received it 
his condition was the same as if it had come to him 
through the actual hearing of the ear. And this, he 
observes, is what God effected also in the case of the 
prophets. 2 A similar rationalistic tendency is observable 
in his explanation of the relation between the Divine and 
human elements in the person of our blessed Lord. His 
language, in fact, on this subject is Nestorian : a distinc- 
tion was to be made between Him who, according to his 
essence, was Son of God — the Logx>s — and Him who 
through Divine decree and adoption became Son of God. 
He who was born as Man from Mary was Son according 
to grace, but God the Logos was Son according to 
nature. The Son of Mary became Son of God because He 
was selected to be the receptacle or temple of God the 
Word. It was only in an improper sense that God the 
Word was called Son of David ; the -appellation was given 
to Him merely because the human temple in which He 
dwelt belonged to the lineage of David. 3 It is clear that 

1 Nicpph. crzipa. vol. i, p. 524 and 3 Leont. Bj-zant. contra Nestor, et 
436. Eurych. lib. iii. in Basnage thesanr. 

2 Ibid. vol. i. p. 80. monum. i. o92. 



Cii. III.] RETREAT OF THEODOEE. 33 

Diodorus would have objected equally with Nestorius to 
apply the title of ' God-bearer ' (Ssotokos) to the blessed 
Virgin. Sixty years later, in a.d. 429, the streets of Con- 
stantinople and Alexandria resounded with tumults ex- 
cited by controversy about the subject of which this was 
the watchword. But Diodorus happily lived too early for 
these dreadful conflicts, and his scholar Theodore was not 
personally disturbed; though long after his death, in 
a.d. 553, his writings were condemned by the Fifth (Ecu- 
menical Council, because the Nestorians appealed to them 
in confirmation of their tenets, and revered his memory. 
The practical element in Diodorus, his method of literal 
and common-sense interpretation of Holy Scripture, was 
inherited chiefly by Chrysostom ; the intellectual vein, his 
conceptions of the relation between the Godhead and 
Manhood in Christ, his opinions respecting the final resto- 
ration of mankind, which were almost equivalent to a 
denial of eternal punishment, were reproduced mainly by 
Theodore. 

It was inevitable that sometimes those who, in an access 
of religious fervour, had renounced the world and subjected 
themselves to the sternest ascetism, found that they had 
miscalculated their powers. The passionate enthusiasm 
which for a time carried them along the thorny path would 
begin to subside ; a hankering after a more natural, if not 
more worldly life ensued ; and occasionally the reaction 
was so violent, the passions kept down in unnatural con- 
straint reasserted themselves with such force, that the 
ascetic flew back to the pleasures and sometimes to the 
sins of the world, with an appetite which was in painful 
contrast to his previous abstinence. The youthful Theodore 
was for a time an instance, though far from an extreme in- 
stance, of such reaction : the strain was too great for him ; 
he relapsed for a season into his former habits of life ; he 
retired from the little ascetic brotherhood to which Chry- 



34 LITE ANB TIMES OF ST, CHRYSOSTOM. ^Ch. ILL 

sostom and Basil belonged. There is no evidence that he 
fell into any kind of sin ; he simply returned to the occu- 
pations and amusements of ordinary life. He was in love 
with and desirous of marrying a touhgt lady named Her- 

mione. But Chrysostom was at this period such an ardent 
ascetic : he was so deeply impressed with the evil of the 
world, and regarded an austere and absolute separation 
from it as so indisputably the highest form of Christian 
life, that to him any divergence from that path, when once 
adopted, seemed a positive sin. The relapse of Theodore 
called forth two letters of lamentation, remonstrance, and 
exhortation from his friend. They are the earliest of his 
extant works, and exhibit a command of language which 
does credit to the training of Libanius as well as to 
his own ability, and an intimate acquaintance with Holy 
Scripture, which proves how much time he had already 
spent in diligent and patient study. Since these epistles 
have been justly considered among 1 the finest of his pro- 
ductions, and represent his opinions at an early stage of 
his life respecting repentance, a future life, the advan- 
tages of ascetism and celibacy, some paraphrases from 
them will be presented to the reader. 

He begins his first letter by quoting the words of 
Jeremiah, •' Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes 
a fountain of tears. 5 

{ If the prophet uttered that lamentation over a ruined 
city, surely I may express a like passionate sorrow over 
the fallen soul of a brother. That soul which was once 
the temple of the Holy Spirit now lies open and defence- 
less to become the prey of any hostile invader. The spirit 
of avarice, of arrogance, of lust, may now find a free pas- 
sage into a heart which was once as pure and inaccessible 
to evil as heaven itself. Wherefore I mourn and weep, 
nor will I cease from my mourning until I see thee again 
in thy former brilliancy. For though this may seem im- 



Ch. III.] CHRYSOSTOM'S LETTERS TO THEODORE. 35 

possible to men, yet with. God it is possible, for He it is 
who liffceth the beggar from the earth and taketh the poor 
out of the dunghill, that He may set him with the princes, 
even with the princes of his people.' An eminent charac- 
teristic of Chrysostom is that he is always hopeful of 
human nature ; he never doubts the capacity of man to 
rise, or the willingness of God to raise him. Theodore 
himself appears to have been stricken with remorse, and 
to have drooped into despondence^, to rouse him from 
which and lead him to repose more trustfully on the good- 
ness of God, was one main purpose of Chrysostom 's let- 
ters. ' Despair was the devil's work ; ' c it is he who tries 
to cut off that hope whereby men are saved, which is the 
support and anchor of the soul, which, like a long chain 
let down from heaven, little by little draws those who hold 
tightly to it up to heavenly heights, and lifts them above 
the storm and tempest of these worldly ills. The devil 
tries to extinguish that trust which is the source and 
strength of prayer, which enables men to cry, "as the 
eyes of a maiden look unto the hand of her mistress, even 
so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until He have 
mercy upon us." Yet if man will only believe it, there is 
never a time at which any one, even the most abandoned 
sinner, may not turn and repent and be accepted by God. 
For God being impassible, his wrath is not a passion or 
an emotion ; He punishes not in anger, since He is unsus- 
ceptible by nature of injury from any insult or wrong done 
by us, but in mercy, that He may bring men back to Him- 
self. l The many instances of God's mercy ; his relenting 
towards the Jews, and even to Ahab, when he humbled 
himself; the repentance of Manasseh — of the Ninevites — 
of the penitent thief — all accepted, although preceded by 
a long course of sin, prove that the words " to-day if ye 
will hear his voice" are applicable to anytime: — it is 

1 C. 2-5. 
d 2 



36 LIFE AND TDIES OF ST, CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. HI. 

always " to-day " as long as a man lives : repentance is 
estimated not by length of time, but by tlie disposition of 
the heart.' He acutely observes that •' despondency often 
conceals moral weakness : a secret though perhaps uncon- 
scious sympathy with the sin which the man professes to 
deplore and hate.' ' To fall is natural, but to remain 
fallen argues a kind of acquiescence in evil, a feebleness of 
moral purpose which is more displeasing to God than the 
fall itself.' l 

But although he speaks in the most hopeful, encouraging 
language of the efficacy of repentance, however late, if 
sincere, in this lift, no one can assert more strongly the 
impossibility of restoration when the limits of this present 
existence have once been passed. In this respect he 
differs alike from Origen. Diodorus. and his fellow-student 
Theodore, and from believers in the later developed doc- 
trine of purgatory. i As long as we are here, it is possible, 
even if we sin ten thousand times, to wash all away by 
repentance ; but when once we have been taken to that 
other world, even if we manifest the greatest penitence, it 
will avail us nought, but however much we may gnash 
with our teeth, and beat our breasts, and pour forth 
entreaties, no one will be able even with the tip of his 
finger to cool us in the flame : we shall only hear the 
same words as the rich man : "'between us and you there 
is a great gulf fixed."' 2 Xothincr is more remarkably 
characteristic of Ckrysostonrs productions, especially the 
earlier, than a frequent recurrence to this truth : the exist- 
ence of a great impassable chasm between the two abodes of 
misery and bliss. Heaven and hell were no distant dream- 
lands to him. but realities so nearly and vividly present to 
his mind that they acted as powerful motives, encouraging 
to holiness, deterring from vice. He paints the two 
pictures in glowing colours, and submits them to the 
1 I. o. B a 9. - c. p. 



Ch. III.; THE LETTERS TO THEODORE. 37 

contemplation of his friend. ' When you hear of fire 
think not that the fire in that other world is like it ; for 
this earthly fire burns up and consumes whatever it lays 
hold of, but that burns continually those who are seized 
by it and never ceases, wherefore it is called unquenchable. 
For sinners must be clothed with immortality, not for 
honour, but merely to supply a constant material for this 
punishment to feed upon ; and how terrible this is, a 
description would indeed never be able to present, but from 
our experience of small sufferings it is possible to form 
some little conception of those greater miseries. If you 
should ever be in a bath which has been overheated, then 
I pray you consider the fire of hell ; or if ever you have 
been parched by a severe fever, transfer your thoughts to 
that flame, and you will be able clearly to distinguish the 
difference. For if a bath or a fever so distress and 
agitate us, what will be our condition when we fall into 
that river of fire which flows past the terrible Judge's 
throne.' 1 'Heaven is, indeed, a subject which transcends 
the powers of human language, yet we can form a dim 
image of what it is like. It is the place " whence sorrow 
and sighing shall flee away " (Is. xxxv. 10) ; where 
poverty and sickness are not to be dreaded ; where no 
one injures or is injured, no one provokes or is provoked ; 
no one is harassed by anxiety about the necessary wants, 
or frets over the loftier ambitions of life ; it is the place 
where the tempest of human passions is lulled; where 
there is neither night nor cold nor heat, nor changes of 
season, nor old age ; but everything belonging to decay 
is taken away, and incorruptible glory reigns alone. But 
far above all these things, it is the place where men will 
continually enjoy the society of Jesus Christ, together 
with angels and archangels and all the powers above.' 2 
' Open your eyes,' he cries in a transport of feeling, i and 

1 C. 10. 2 Theod. i. c. 11 in initio. 



38 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. in. 

contemplate in imagination that heavenly theatre crowded 

not with men snch as we see, but with those who are 

nobler than gold or precious stones or sunbeams, or any 

brilliant thing that can be seen ; and not with men only, 

but angels, thrones, dominions, powers ranged about the 

King whom we dare not describe for his transcendant 

beauty, majesty, and splendour. If we had to suffer ten 

thousand deaths every day ; nay, if we had to undergo 

hell itself, for the sake of beholding Christ coming in his 

glory, and being numbered among the band of saints, 

would it not be well to submit to all these things ? 

" Master, it is a good thing for us to be here " : if such an 

exclamation burst from St. Peter on witnessing a partial 

and veiled manifestation of Christ's glory, what are we 

to say when the reality shall be displayed, when the royal 

palace shall be thrown open and we shall see the King 

Himself; no longer by means of a mirror, or as it were 

in a riddle, but face to face ; no longer through faith, but 

factual sight.' 1 He passes on to some remarks upon the 

soul, which are Platonic in character : ' Man cannot alter 

the shape of his body, but God has conceded to him a 

power, with the assistance of Divine grace, of increasing 

the beauty of the soul. Even that soul which has become 

deformed by the ugliness of sin, may be restored to its 

pristine beauty. No lover was ever so much captivated 

by the beauty of the body as God loves and longs for the 

beauty of the human soul. 2 Tou who are now transported 

with admiration of Hermione's beauty 5 (the girl whom 

Theodore wished to marry) c may, if you will, cultivate a 

beauty in your own soul as far exceeding hers as heaven 

surpasses earth. Beauty of the soul is ' the only true and 

permanent kind, and if you could see it with the eye, 

you would admire it far more than the loveliness of the 

rainbow and of roses, and other flowers which are eva- 

1 C. 11. 2 C. 13. 



Cit. Ill/ THE LETTERS TO THEODORE. 89 

nescent, and feeble representations of the soul's beauty.' 1 
He tells some curious stories of men who had relapsed 
from monastic life and subsequently been reclaimed to it. 
One, a young man of noble family and heir to great 
wealth, had thrown up all the splendour which he might 
have commanded, and exchanged his riches and his gay 
clothing for the poverty and mean garb of a recluse upon 
the mountains, and had attained an astonishing degree of 
holiness. But some of his relations seduced him from his 
retreat, and once more he might be seen riding on horse- 
back through the forum followed by a crowd of attendants. 
But the holy brethren whom he had deserted ceased not 
to endeavour to recover him; at first he treated them 
with haughty indifference, when they met and saluted him 
as he proudly rode through the streets. But at last, as 
they desisted not day by day, he would leap from his 
horse when they appeared, and listen with downcast eyes 
to their warnings ; till, as time went on, he was rescued 
from his worldly entanglements, and restored to his desert 
and the study of the true philosophy, and now, when 
Chrysostom wrote, he bestowed his wealth upon the poor, 
and had attained the very pinnacle of virtue. 2 Earnestly, 
therefore, does he implore Theodore to recover his trust 
in God, to repent and return to the brotherhood which 
was buried in grief at his defection. ' Now the un- 
believing and the worldly rejoice, but return to us and 
our sorrow and shame will be transferred to the adversary's 
side.' * It was the beginning of penitence which was 
arduous; the devil met the penitent at the door of the 
city of refuge, but if defeated there, the fury of his assaults 
would diminish.' He warned him against an idle confes- 
sion of sinfulness not accompanied by any honest effort 
to amend. ' Such was no true confession, because not 
joined with the tears of contrition or followed by altera- 

1 C. 14. 2 C. 17. 



40 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHKYSOSTOM. [Oh. III. 

tion of life.' ! But of Theodore he hoped better things ; 
as there were different degrees of glory reserved for men, 
implied in our Lord's mention of ' many mansions,' and 
his declaring that everyone should be rewarded according 
to his works, he trusted that Theodore might still obtain 
a high place ; that he might be a vessel of silver if not of 
gold or precious stone in the heavenly house. 2 

In the second epistle Chrysostom expresses more dis- 
tinctly his view respecting the solemn obligations of those 
who joined a religious fraternity. c If tears and groanings 
could be transmitted through a letter, this of mine would 
be filled with them ; I weep that you have blotted your- 
self out of the catalogue of the brethren, and trampled on 
your covenant with Christ.' ' The devil assaulted him 
with peculiar fury, because he was anxious to conquer so 
worthy an antagonist ; one who had despised delicate fare 
and costly dress, who had spent whole days in the study 
of Holy Scripture, and whole nights in prayer, who had 
regarded the society of the brethren as a greater honour 
than any worldly dignity. What, I pray you, is there that 
appears blessed and enviable in the world ? The prince is 
exposed to the wrath of the people and the irrational out- 
bursts of popular feeling — to the fear of princes greater 
than himself— to anxieties about his subjects ; and the 
ruler of to-day is to-morrow a private man : for this pre- 
sent life no way differs from a stage ; as on that, one man 
plays the part of a king, another of a general, a third of a 
common soldier ; but when evening has come, the king is 
no king, the ruler no ruler, the general no general ; so 
will it be in that day ; each will receive his due reward, 
not according to the character which" he has enacted, but 
according to the works which he has done.' 3 Theodore 
had clearly expressed his intention of honourably marry- 
ing Hermione ; but though Chrysostom allows that mar^ 

1 C. 16 and 19. 2 C. 19. 3 C. 3. 



Cn. III.] THEODORE RETURNS. 41 

riage is an honourable estate, yet he boldly declares that 
for one who like Theodore had made such a solemn renun- 
ciation of the world, it was equally criminal with fornica- 
tion. He had wholly dedicated himself to the service of 
God, and he had no right to bind himself by any other 
tie : to marry would be as culpable as desertion in a 
soldier. He points out the miseries, the anxieties, the 
toils, often fruitless, which accompanied secular life, espe- 
cially in the married state. From all such ills the life of 
the brotherhood was exempt : he alone was truly free who 
lived for Christ ; he was like one who, securely planted on 
an eminence, beholds other men below him buffetting with 
the waves of a tumultuous sea. For such a high vantage 
ground Chrysostom implores Theodore to make. He begs 
him to pardon the length of his letter ; ' nothing but his 
ardent love for his friend could have constrained him to 
write this second epistle. Many indeed had discouraged 
what they regarded as a vain task and sowing upon a 
rock ; but he was not so to be diverted from his efforts : 
he trusted that by the grace of God his letters would 
accomplish something ; and if not, he should at least have 
delivered himself from the reproach of silence.' l 

These letters are the productions of a youthful enthu- 
siast, and as such, allowances must be made for them. 
They abound not only in eloquent passages, but in very 
fine and true observations upon human nature — on peni- 
tence — on God's mercy and pardon. It is only the appli- 
cation of them to the case of Theodore which seems 
overstrained. At a later period Chrysostoni's views on 
ascetic and monastic life were modified ; but in early life ? 
though never fanatical, they were what we should call ex- 
treme. His earnest efforts for the restoration of his friend 
were crowned with success. Theodore abandoned the 
world once more and his matrimonial intentions, and re- 

1 C. 5. 



42 LITE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. III. 

tired into the seclusion of the brotherhood. Some twenty 
years later, in a.p. 394, he was made Bishop of Mopsuestia, 
which is pretty nearly all we know about him, but the 
extant fragments of his voluminous writings prove him to 
have been a man of no ordinary ability, and a powerful 
commentator of the same sensible and rational school as 
Chrysostom himself. We may be disposed to say what of 
Hermione ? Had she no claims to be considered ? But 
the ascetic line of life was regarded by the earnest-minded 
as so indisputably the noblest which a Christian could 
adopt, that her disappointment would not have been al- 
lowed to weigh in the balance for a moment against what 
was considered the higher call. 1 

1 Tillemont maintains that the Theo- Mopsuestia, but he stands alone in 

dore to whom the first letter is ad- this opinion, and his reasons for it 

dressed must have been a different seem inadequate. — Till. xi. note vi. 

person from the fellow-student of p. 550. 
Chrysostom and eventual Bishop of 



48 



CHAPTER IV. 

CHRYSOSTOM EVADES FORCIBLE ORDINATION TO A BISHOPRIC — THE 
TREATISE 'ON THE PRIESTHOOD.' A. D. 370, 371. 

We now come to a curious passage in Chrysostom 's life ; 
one in which his conduct, from our moral stand-point, 
seems hardly justifiable. Yet for one reason it is not to 
be regretted, since it eventually drew forth from him his 
treatise * De Sacerdotio ; ' one of the ablest, most instruc- 
tive, and most eloquent works which he ever produced. 

Bishop Meletius had been banished in a.d. 370 or 371. 
The Arian Emperor Yalens, who had expelled him, was 
about to take up his residence in Antioch. It was de- 
sirable therefore, without loss of time, to fill up some vacant 
sees in Syria. The attention of the bishops, clergy, and 
people was turned to Chrysostom and Basil, as men well 
qualified for the episcopal office. 

According to a custom prevalent at that time, they 
might any day be seized and compelled, however reluc- 
tant, to accept the dignity. So St. Augustine was dragged, 
weeping, by the people before the bishop, and his imme- 
diate ordination demanded by them, regardless of his 
tears. 1 So St. Martin, Bishop of Tours, was torn from his 
cell, and conveyed under a guard to his ordination. 2 The 
two friends were filled with apprehension and alarm. Basil 
implored Chrysostom that they might act in concert at the 

1 Possid. Vit. August, c. iv. designate of Alexandria is at this day 

2 Sulp. Sever. Vit. St. Martin. 1. i. brought to Cairo, loaded with chains, 
p. 224. The affectation of reluctance as if to prevent his escape. — Stanley, 
to he consecrated became a fashion in Eastern Church, lect. vii. p. 22fi. 

the Coptic Church. The. patriarch 



44 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Oh. IV. 

present crisis, and together accept or together evade or 
resist the expected but unwelcome honour. 

Chrysostom affected to consent to this proposal, but in 
reality determined to act otherwise. He regarded himself 
as totally unworthy and incompetent to fill so sacred and 
responsible an office ; but considering Basil to be far more 
advanced in learning and piety, he resolved that the Church 
should not, through his own weakness, lose the services 
of his friend. Accordingly, when popular report proved 
correct, and some emissaries from the electing body were 
sent to carry off the young men (much, it would seem from 
Chrysostom's account, as policemen might arrest a pri- 
soner), Chrysostom contrived to hide himself. Basil, less 
wary, was captured, and imagined that Chrysostom had 
already submitted ; for the emissaries acted with subtlety 
when he tried to resist them. They affected surprise that 
he should make so violent a resistance, when his com- 
panion, who had the reputation of a hotter temper, had 
yielded so mildly to the decision of the Fathers. 1 Thus 
Basil was led to suppose that Chrysostom had already sub- 
mitted; and when he discovered too late the artifice of 
his friend and his captors, he bitterly remonstrated with 
Chrysostom upon his treacherous conduct. 6 The cha- 
racter of them both,' he complained, was compromised 
' by this division in their counsels.' ' You should have told 
us where your friend was hidden,' said some, ' and then 
we should have contrived some means of capturing him,' 
to which poor Basil was ashamed to reply that he had 
been ignorant of his friend's concealment, lest such a con- 
fession should cast a suspicion of unreality over the whole 
of their supposed intimacy. ' Chrysostom, on his side, was 
accused of haughtiness and vanity for declining so great a 

1 C. 5. This word may refer to the had elected him bishop. — Comment, 
bishops or the people. Ambrose calls in Luc. 1. viii. c. 17. 
the people his ' parentes,' because they 



Oh. IV.] BASIL REMONSTRATES WITH CHRYSOSTOM. 45 

dignity ; though others said that the electors deserved a 
still greater dishonour and defeat for appointing over the 
heads of wiser, holier, and older men, mere lads, 1 who had 
been but yesterday immersed in secular pursuits ; that 
they might now for a little while knit their brows, and go 
arrayed in sombre robes and affect a grave countenance.' 2 
Basil begged Chrysostom for an explanation of his motives 
in this proceeding. ' After all their mutual protestations of 
indivisible friendship, he had been suddenly cast off and 
turned adrift, like a vessel without ballast, to encounter 
alone the angry tempests of the world. To whoni should 
he now turn for sympathy and aid in the trials to which 
he would surely be exposed from slander, ribaldry, and 
insolence ? The one who might have helped him stood 
coldly aloof, and would be unable even to hear his cries 
for assistance.' 3 

We may be strongly disposed to sympathise with the 
disconsolate Basil. But the conscience of Chrysostom 
appears to have been quite at ease from first to last in 
this transaction. He regarded it as a ' pious fraud.' 
' When he beheld the mingled distress and displeasure of 
his friend he could not refrain from laughing for joy, and 
thanking God for the successful issue of his plan.' 4 In the 
ensuing discussion he boldly asserted the principle that 
deceit claims our admiration when practised in a good 
cause and from a good motive. The greatest successes in 
war, he argues, have been achieved through stratagem, as 
well as by fair fighting in the open field ; and, of the two, 
the first are most to be admired, because they are gained 
without bloodshed, and are triumphs of mental rather 
than bodily force. 5 But, retorts poor Basil, I was not an 
enemy, and ought not to have been dealt with as such. 
' True, my excellent friend,' replies Chrysostom, c but this 

1 jj.eipd.Kta; vide note at end of chapter. 2 I. c. 5. 3 C. 7- 

' C. 6. 5 C. 8. 



40 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHBYSOSTOM. ~Ch. IV. 

kind of fraud may sometimes be exercised towards our 
dearest acquaintance.' * Physicians were often obliged to 
employ some artifice to make refractory patients submit 
to their remedies. Once a man in a raging fever resisted 
all the febrifugal draughts administered to him, and 
loudly called for wine. The physician darkened the 
room, steeped a warm oyster shell in wine, then filled it 
with water, and put it to the patient's lips, who eagerly 
swallowed the draught, believing it, from the smell, to be 
wine. 3 l In the same category of justifiable stratagem 
he places, not very discriminatingly, the circumcision of 
Timothy by St. Paul, in order to conciliate the Jews, and 
St. Paul's observance of the ceremonial law at Jerusalem 
(Acts xxi. 26), for the same purpose. Such contrivances 
he calls instances, not of treachery, but of £ good manage- 
ment ' (olfcovofila). There is something highly Oriental, 
and remote from our Western moral sense, in the soi3his- 
tical tone of this whole discussion. If Basil really sub- 
mitted to such arguments, he was easily vanquished. He 
says, however, no more about the injustice of his treat- 
ment, but apparently accepting Chrysostom's position 
that for a useful purpose deceit is justifiable, he begs to 
be informed i what advantage Chrysostom thought he had 
procured for himself or his friend by this piece of manage- 
ment, or good policy, or whatever he pleased to call it.' 

The remaining books on the Priesthood are occupied 
with the answer to this enquiry. The line which Chry- 
sostom takes is to point out the pre-eminent dignity, 
difficulty, and danger of the priestly office, and then to 
enlarge upon the peculiar fitness of his friend to discharge 
its duties. 2 ' What advantage could be greater than to 

1 C. 9. the original without much apparent 

2 The words priest and bishop are distinction. Chrysostom is speaking 
employed in the following translations of the priesthood generally, and it is 
and paraphrases, to correspond with not easy to say which Order he has in 
kpevs and inio-Ko-rros. which are used in his mind at any given moment. 



Ch. IV.] DIGNITY, ETC. OF THE PRIESTLY OFFICE. 47 

be engaged in that work which Christ had declared with 
his own lips to be the special sign of love to Himself. 
For when He pnt the question three times to the chieftain 
of the apostles (/eopvcpaios), " Lovest thou rue?" and had 
been answered by a fervent asseveration of attachment, 
he added each time, " Feed my sheep," or " Feed my 
lambs." " Lovest thou me more than these ? " had been 
the question, and the charge which followed it had been 
always, " Feed my sheep " ; not, If thou lovest Me, practise 
fasting, or incessant vigils, and sleep on the bare ground, 
or protect the injured and be to the orphans as a father, 
and to their mother as a husband ; no, he passes by all 
these things, and says, " Feed my sheep." Could his 
friend, therefore, complain that he had done ill in com- 
passing, even by fraud, his dedication to so glorious an 
office ? l As for himself, it was obvious that he could not 
have refused so great an honour out of haughty contempt 
or disrespect to the electors. On the contrary, it was 
when he considered the exceeding sanctity and magnitude 
of the position, and its awful responsibilities — the heavenly 
purity, the burning love towards God and man, the sound 
wisdom and judgment, and moderation of temper required 
in those who were dedicated to it — that his heart failed 
him. He felt himself utterly incompetent and unworthy 
for so arduous a task. If some unskilled person was sud- 
denly to be called upon to take charge of a ship laden 
with a costly freight, he would immediately refuse ; and 
in like manner he himself dared not risk, by his present 
inexperience, the safety of that vessel which was laden 
with the precious merchandise of souls. 2 Yam-glory, in- 
deed, and pride would have induced him not to reject, but 
to covet so transcendent a dignity. The office of priest 
was discharged indeed on earth, yet it held a place among 
heavenly ranks. And rightly ; for neither man, nor angel, 

1 II. c. 2. 2 III. c. 1, 2, 5. 



48 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHEYSOSTOM. [Oh. IV. 

nor archangel, nor created power of any kind, but the 
Paraclete Himself, ordained this ministry. Therefore, it 
became one who entered the priesthood to be as pure as if 
he had already taken his stand in heaven itself among the 
powers above. " When thou seest the Lord lying slain, 
and the priest standing and praying over the sacrifice, 
when thou seest all sprinkled with that precious blood, 
dost thou deem thyself still among men, still standing 
upon this earth; art thou not rather transported imme- 
diately to heaven, and, every carnal imagination being 
cast out, dost thou not, with soul unveiled and pure mind, 
behold the things which are in heaven ? O miracle ! O 
the goodness of God ! He who is sitting with the Father 
is yet at that hour held in the hands of all, and gives 
Himself to be embraced and grasped by those who desire 
it. And this all do through the eye of faith. Do these 
things seem to you to merit contempt ? does it seem pos- 
sible to you that anyone should be so elated as to slight 
them?" 1 

c Human nature possessed in the priesthood a power 
which had not been committed by God to augels or arch- 
angels ; for to none of them had it been said, " Whatsoever 
ye shall bind on earth or loose on earth shall be bound or 
loosed in heaven." Was it possible to conceive that any- 
one should think lightly of such a gift ? Away with such 
madness ! — for stark madness it would be to despise so 
great an authority, without which it was not possible for 
man to obtain salvation, or the good things promised to 
him. For if it were impossible for anyone to enter into 
the kingdom of heaven, except he were born again of 
water and the Spirit ; and if he who* did not eat the flesh 
of the Lord and drink his blood was ejected from life 
eternal, and if these things were administered by none 
but the consecrated hands of the priest, how would any- 

1 III. c. 4. 



On. IV.] MODE OF ELECTING TO BISHOPRICS. 49 

one, apart from them, be able to escape the fire of hell, or 
obtain the crown laid up for him ? ' ' 

There are, perhaps, no passages elsewhere in Chrysostom 
expressed in such a lofty sacerdotal tone ; but it must be 
remembered that on any supposition as to the date of this 
treatise, he was young when it was composed, holding 
therefore, as on the subject of monasticism, more enthu- 
siastic, highly-wrought opinions than he afterwards enter- 
tained ; and moreover, that the whole treatise is written 
in a somewhat vehement and excited style, as by one who 
was maintaining a position against an antagonist. 

Having proved that his evasion of the episcopal office 
could have arisen from no spirit of pride, but from a con- 
sciousness of his infirmity and incapacity, he proceeds to 
point out the manifold and peculiar dangers which en- 
compassed it. * Vain-glory was a rock more fatal than the 
Syrens. Many a priest was shipwrecked there, and torn 
to pieces by the fierce monsters which dwelt upon it — 
wrath, despondency, envy, strife, slander, falsehood, 
hypocrisy, love of praise, and a multitude more. Often 
he became the slave and flatterer of great people, even 
of women who had most improperly mixed themselves 
up with ecclesiastical affairs, and especially exercised 
great influence in the elections.' a 

The scenes, indeed, which often took place about this 
period at the elections to bishoprics, occasioned much 
scandal to the Church. In earlier times, when the Chris- 
tians were less numerous, more simple in their habits, 
more unanimous ; when liability to persecution deterred 
the indifferent, or pretenders, from their ranks, the epis- 
copal office could be no object of worldly ambition. The 
clergy and the people elected their bishop ; and the fair- 
ness and simplicity with which the election was usually 
conducted, won the admiration of the Emperor Alexander 

1 III. 5. 2 III. 9, 10. 



50 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CTIRYSOSTOM. [Ch. IV. 

Severus. 1 But when Christianity was recognised by the 
State, a bishopric in towns of importance became a posi- 
tion of high dignity ; and warm debates, often fierce 
tumults, attended the election of candidates. Up to the 
time of Justinian at least, the whole Christian population 
of the city or region over which the bishop was to preside 
possessed a right to elect. Their choice was subject to 
the approval of the bishops, and the confirmation of the 
metropolitan of the province ; but, on the other hand, 
neither the bishops nor the metropolitan could legally 
obtrude a candidate of their own upon the people. A 
charge brought against Hilary of Aries was, that he or- 
dained several bishops against the will and consent of the 
people. A just and legitimate ordination, according to 
Cyprian, was one which had been examined by the suf- 
frage and judgment of all, both clergy and people. Such, 
he observes, was the election of Cornelius to the see of 
Rome in a. d. 2 5 1. 2 If the people were unanimous, there 
were loud cries of cl^los, dignus ; aidgcos, indignus, as the 
case might be ; but if they were divided, it was usual for 
the metropolitan to give the preference to the choice of the 
majority ; or, if they appeared equally divided, the metro- 
politan and his synod selected a man indifferent, if pos- 
sible, to both parties. Occasionally, also, as in the case 
of Nectarius, the predecessor of Chrysostom in the see of 
Constantinople, the Emperor interposed, and appointed 
one chosen by himself. Sanguinary often were the 
tumults which attended contested elections. The greater 
the city, the greater the strife. In the celebrated contest 
for the see of Rome in a.d. 366, between Damasus and 
Ursicinus, there was much hard fighting and copious 
bloodshed. Damasus, with a furious and motley mob, broke 
into the Julian Basilica, where Ursicinus was being con- 
secrated by Paul, Bishop of Tibur, and violently stopped 

1 Lamprid. Vita Alex. Sev. ch. 45. Paris edit. 2 Cyprian Epis. 52. 



Ch. IV.] VIOLENCE AT ELECTIONS. 51 

the proceedings. Frays of this kind lasted for some 
time. On one occasion, one hundred and thirty dead 
bodies strewed the pavement of the Basilica of Licinnius, 
till Damasus was eventually triumphant. It is especially 
mentioned that the ladies of Eome favoured his side. 1 It 
seems scarcely possible to doubt that as these events must 
have been fresh in Chrysostom's recollection, he must be 
specially referring to them when, insisting on freedom 
from ambition as one grand qualification for the priest- 
hood, he says, ' that he will pass by, lest they should seem 
incredible, the tales of murders perpetrated in churches, 
and havoc wrought in cities by contentions for bishop- 
rics ; ' and when also he alludes indignantly to the inter- 
ference of women in the elections. ' The elections,' he 
says, ' were generally made on public festivals, and were 
disgraceful scenes of party feeling and intrigue. The 
clergy and the people were never unanimous. The really 
important qualifications for the office were seldom consi- 
dered. Ambitious men spared no arts of bribery or flat- 
tery by which to obtain places for themselves in the 
Church, and to keep them when obtained. One candidate 
for a bishopric was recommended to the electors because 
he belonged to a distinguished family; another because he 
was wealthy, and would not burden the funds of the 
Church.' * The provocations to ambition and worldly 
glory were so great, both in the acquisition and in the 
possession of the episcopal office, that Chrysostom says, 
he had ' determined partly for these reasons to avoid the 
snare. 3 He shrunk also from many other trials incident 

1 Ammian. Marcell. 1. xxvii. c. 3. any secular office. To win glory and 
Socrat. 1. iv. c. 29. See a multitude honour among men we peril our sal- 
of evidence carefully collected on this vation. . . . Consuls and prefects do 
subject in Bingham, vol. i. b. iv. not enjoy such honour as he who pre- 
ch. 2. sides over the Church. Go to court, 

2 III. 15. or to the houses of lords and ladies, 

3 Comp. in Ac. Apost. Horn. iii. 5. and whom do you find foremost there ? 
' Men now aim at a bishopric like no one is put before the bishop.' 

e 2 



52 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. IV. 

to the office. There were always persons ready to detect 
and magnify the slightest mistake or transgression in a 
priest. One little error could not be retrieved by a mul- 
titude of successes, but darkened the man's whole life. 
For a kind of immaculate purity was exacted by popular 
opinion of a priest, as if he was not a being of flesh and 
blood, or subject to human passions. Often his brethren, 
the clergy, were the most active in spreading mischievous 
reports about him, hoping to rise themselves upon his 
ruin ; like avaricious sons waiting for their father's death. 
Too often St. Paul's description of the sympathy between 
the several parts of the Christian body was inverted. " If 
one member suffered, all the others rejoiced ; if one 
member rejoiced, the others suffered pain." A bishop had 
need be as impervious to slander and envy as the three 
children in the burning fiery furnace. 1 What a rare and 
difficult combination of qualities was required for the 
efficient discharge of his duties in the face of such diffi- 
culties ! " He must be dignified, yet not haughty ; for- 
midable, yet affable ; commanding, yet sociable ; strictly 
impartial, yet courteous ; lowly, but not subservient ; 
strong, yet gentle ; promoting the worthy in spite of all 
opposition, and with equal authority rejecting the un- 
worthy, though pushed forward by the favour of all; 
looking always to one thing only — the welfare of the 
Church, ; doing nothing out of animosity or partiality." 2 
The behaviour also of a priest in ordinary society was 
jealously criticised. The community was not satisfied 
unless he was constantly paying calls. Not the sick only, 
but the sound desired to be " looked after" (iTriaKoirsloOai), 
— not so much from any religious feeling, as because the 
reception of such visits gratified their sense of their own 
importance. Yet if a bishop often visited the house of a 
wealthy or distinguished man to interest him in some 

1 III. c. 14. 2 III. 16. 



Ch. IV.] QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE PRIESTHOOD. 53 

design for the advantage of the Church, he would soon 
be stigmatised as a parasitical flatterer. Even the manner 
of his greetings to acquaintance in the streets was criti- 
cised : " He smiled cordially on Mr. Such-an-one, and 
talked much with him ; but to me he only threw a com- 
monplace remark." ' 1 

It is amusing and instructive to read these observa- 
tions. They prove what important personages bishops 
had become. The interests of the people were violently 
excited over their elections. They were subjected to the 
mingled reverence, deference and court, criticism, scandal, 
and gossip, which are the inevitable lot of all persons 
who occupy an exalted position in the world. 

In the fourth book Chrysostom speaks of some of 
the more mental qualifications indispensable for a priest. 
Foremost among these was a power of speaking : c That 
was the one grand instrument which enabled him to heal 
the diseases of the body entrusted to his care. And in 
addition to this, he must be armed with a prompt and 
versatile wit, to encounter the various assaults of heretics. 
Jews, Greeks, Manichseans, Sabellians, Arians, all were 
narrowly watching for the smallest loophole by which to 
force a breach in the walls of the Church. And, unless 
the defender was very vigilant and skilful, while he was 
keeping out the one he would let in the other. While he 
opposed the blind deference of the Jews to their Mosaic 
Law, he must take care not to encourage the Manichseans, 
who would eliminate the Law from the Scriptures. While 
he asserted the Unity of the Godhead against the Arians, 
there was danger of slipping into the Sabellian error of 
confounding the Persons ; and, while he divided the 
Persons against the Sabellians, he must be careful to avoid 
the Arian error of dividing the substance also. The line 
of orthodoxy was a narrow path hemmed in by steep rocks 

1 III. 1.7. 



54 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. IV. 

on either side. Therefore it was of the deepest importance 
that the priest should be a learned and effective speaker ; 
that he might not fall into error himself or lead others 
astray. For, if he was seen to be worsted in a contro- 
versy with heretics, many became alienated from the 
truth, mistaking the weakness of the defender for a weak- 
ness in the cause itself/ l 

' But there was yet another task fraught with peril, — 
the delivery of sermons. The performances of a preacher 
were discussed by a curious and critical public like those 
of actors. Congregations attached themselves to their 
favourite preachers. Woe to the man who was detected 
in plagiarisms. He was instantly reprobated like a com- 
mon thief. 

< To become an effective preacher two things were 
necessary, — first, indifference to praise; secondly, power 
of speech ; two qualities, the one moral, the other intel- 
lectual, which were rarely found coexisting. If a man 
possessed the first only, he became distasteful and despi- 
cable to his congregation. For if he stood up and at first 
boldly uttered powerful words which stung the consciences 
of his hearers, but as he proceeded began to blush and 
hesitate and stumble, all the advantage of his previous 
remarks would be wasted. The persons who had secretly 
felt annoyed by his telling reproofs would revenge them- 
selves by laughing at his embarrassment in speaking. If, 
on the other hand, he was a weighty speaker, but not 
indifferent to applause, he would probably trim his sails 
to catch the popular breeze, and study to be pleasant 
rather than profitable, to the great detriment of himself 
and of his flock.' 2 

He makes some remarks eminently wise and true on 
the necessity of study for the preparation of sermons. c It 
might seem strange, but in truth study was even more 

1 IV. c. 3-5 and c. 9. 2 V. c. 1-4. 



Ch. IV.] REMARKS ON PREACHING. 55 

indispensable for an eloquent than for an ordinary preacher. 
Speaking was an acquired art, and when a man had at- 
tained a high standard of excellence he was sure to decline 
unless he kept himself up by constant study. The man 
of reputation was always expected to say something new, 
and even in excess of the fame which he had already 
acquired. Men sat in judgment on him without mercy, 
as if he was not a human being subject to occasional de- 
spondency, or anxiety, or irritation of temper ; but as if 
he was an angel or some infallible being, who ought 
always to remain at the same high level of excellence. 
The mediocre man, on the other hand, from whom much 
was not expected, would obtain a disproportionate amount 
of praise if he said a good thing now and then. 1 The 
number of persons, however, in any congregation, who 
were capable of appreciating a really learned and power- 
ful preacher, was very small ; therefore a man ought not 
to be much disheartened or annoyed by unfavourable criti- 
cisms. He should be his own critic, aiming in all his 
work to win the favour of God. Then, if the admiration 
of men followed, he would quietly accept it ; or, if with- 
held, he would not be distressed, but seek his consolation 
in honest work and in a conscience void of offence. 2 But 
if a priest was not superior to the love of admiration, all 
his labour and eloquence would be wasted : either he 
would sacrifice truth to popularity, or, failing to obtain so 
much applause as he desired, he would relax his efforts. 
This last was a common defect in men whose powers of 
preaching were only second-rate. Perceiving that even 
the highly-gifted could not sustain their reputation with- 
out incessant study and practice, while they themselves, 
by the most strenuous efforts, could gain but a very slender 
meed of praise, if any, they abandoned themselves to in- 
dolence. The trial was especially great when a man was 

1 V. c. 5. 2 C. 6, 7 



56 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. IV. 

surpassed in preaching by one who occupied an inferior 
rank in the hierarchy, and who perhaps took every oppor- 
tunity of parading his superior powers. A kind of passion 
for listening to preaching possessed, he says, both Pagans 
and Christians at this time ; hence it was very mortifying 
for a man to see a congregation looking forward to the 
termination of his discourse, while to his rival they list- 
ened with the utmost patience and attention, and were 
vexed only when his sermon had come to an end.' l 

In the sixth book, Chrysostom enlarges on the dangers 
and trials which surrounded the priest as compared with 
the tranquillity and security of the monk, — that life to 
which he still felt himself powerfully attracted. 6 Who 
watch for your souls as they that must give an account. 5 
' The dread of the responsibility implied in that saying, 
constantly agitated his mind. For if it were better to be 
drowned in the sea than to offend one of the little ones 
of Christ's flock, what punishment must they undergo who 
destroyed not one or two but a whole multitude ? 2 Much 
worldly wisdom was required in the priest ; he must be 
conversant with secular affairs, and adapt himself with 
versatility to all kinds of circumstances and men; and 
yet he ought to keep his spirit as free, as unfettered by 
worldly interests and ambitions as the hermit dwelling 
on the mountains.' 3 

The trials, indeed, which beset the priest, so far ex- 
ceeded those of the monk, that Chrysostom considered 
the monastery, on the whole, a bad school for active 
clerical life. c The monk lived in a calm ; there was 
little to oppose or thwart him. The skill of the pilot 
could not be known till he had taken the helm in the 
open sea amidst rough weather. Too many of those who 
had passed from the seclusion of the cloister to the active 
sphere of the priest or bishop, proved utterly inadequate 

1 V. c. 8. " VI. c. 1. 3 VI. c. 4. 



On IV.] REASONS FOR DECLINING BISHOPRIC. 57 

to cope with the difficulties of their new situation. They 
lost their head (IXtyyicoo-Lv) and, often, instead of adding 
to their virtue, were deprived of the good qualities which 
they already possessed. Monasticisin often served as a 
screen to failings which the circumstances of active life 
drew out, just as the qualities of metal were tested by the 
action of fire.' l 

Chrysostom concludes by saying that he was conscious 
of his own infirmities ; the irritability of his temper, his 
liability to violent emotions, his susceptibility to praise 
and blame. All such evil passions could, with the help 
of God's grace, be tamed by the severe treatment of the 
monastic life ; like savage beasts who must be kept on low 
fare. But in the public life of a priest they would rage 
with incontrollable fury, because all would be pampered 
to the full — vain- glory by honour and praise, pride by au- 
thority, envy by the reputation of other men, bad temper 
by perpetual provocations, covetousness by the liber- 
ality of donors to the Church, intemperance by luxurious 
living. 2 He bids Basil picture the most implacable and 
deadly contest between earthly forces which his imagina- 
tion could draw, and declares that this would but faintly 
express the conflict between the soul and evil in the 
spiritual warfare of the world. ' Many accidents might 
put an end to earthly combat, at least for a time — the 
approach of night, the fatigue of the combatants, the 
necessity of taking food and sleep. But in the spiritual 
conflict there were no breathing spaces. A man must 
always have his harness on his back, or he would be sur- 
prised by the enemy.' 3 

It is not surprising that Basil, after the fearful respon- 
sibilities and perils of his new dignity had been thus 
powerfully set before him, should lament that his trouble 

1 VI. c. 6-8. 2 C. 12. 3 C. 13. 



58 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHEYSOSTOM. [Cm IV. 

now was not so much how to answer the accusers of 
Chrysostom as to defend himself before God. He be- 
sought his friend to promise that he would continue to 
support and advise him in all emergencies. Chrysostom 
replied that as far as it was possible he would do so ; but 
that he doubted not Christ, who had called Basil to this 
good work, would enable him to discharge it with bold- 
ness. The j wept, embraced, and parted. And so Basil 
went forth to the unwelcome honours and trials of his 
bishopric, while Chrysostom continued to lead that 
monastic kind of life which was only a preparatory step 
to the monastery itself. His friendship with Basil is 
curious and romantic. Their intercourse was brought to 
a singular conclusion by the stratagem of Chrysostom. 
Basil may have, according to his own earnest request, 
continued to consult his friend in any dimculty or distress. 
But he is never mentioned again. Although so intimately 
bound up with this passage in Chrysostom's life, there is 
something indistinct and shadowy about his whole exist- 
ence. He flits across the scene for a few moments, and 
then disappears totally and for ever. 

The books on the Priesthood may be regarded as con- 
taining partly a real account of an actual conversation 
between the two friends. But, as in the dialogues of 
Plato, far more was probably added by the writer, so that 
in parts the dialogue is only a form into which the 
opinions of the author at the time of composition were 
cast. It is impossible to decide with certainty the exact 
time at which the treatise may have been written. It is 
not likely to have been later than his diaconate in 38 1, 1 
but more probably 2 the work may be assigned to the six 
years of leisure spent in the seclusion of the monastery 

1 Which is the date assigned by the Latin translation by Ambrose 
Socrates vi. 3. Camaldulensis. 

2 As stated by Palladius, at least in 



Oh. IV.] DATE OF BOOKS ON PRIESTHOOD. 59 

and mountains — that is, to the period between Basil's 
election to the bishopric, and his own ordination as 
deacon. The treatise reads like the production of one 
who had acquired considerable experience of monastic life, 
who had deliberately calculated its advantages on the one 
hand ; and on the other had keenly observed and seriously 
considered the temptations and difficulties which attended 
the more secular career of priest or bishop. It is a more 
mature work than the Epistles to Theodore, and is free 
from such rapturous and excessive praise of the ascetic 
life as they contain. 



Note to foregoing Chapter. 

It may excite surprise that men so young as Chrysostom 
aud Basil, the former at least being not more than 25 or 26, 
and not as yet ordained deacon, should have been designated 
to the highest office in the Church. The Council of Neocaesarea 
(about a.d. 320— vide Hefele, vol. i. Clark's transl. p. 222) fixed 
30 as the age at which men became eligible for the priesthood. 
The same age, then, at least must have been required for a 
bishop. 

The Constitutions called Apostolical fix the age at 50, but add 
a clause which really lets in all the exceptions, ' unless he be a 
man of singular merit and worth, which may compensate for the 
want of years.' And, in fact, there are numerous instances of 
men, both before and after the time of Chrysostom, who were 
consecrated as bishops under the age of 30. The Council of 
Nice was held not more than twenty years after the persecu- 
tion of Maximian, which Athanasius (' Epist. ad Solitar.,' p. 382, 
Paris edition) says he had only heard of from his father, yet in 
five months after that council he was ordained Archbishop of 
Alexandria. Rhemigius of Rheims was only 22 when he was 
made bishop in a.d. 471. In like manner, though it was enacted 
by the Council of Sardica 343-344, that none should rise to the 



60 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [On. IV. 

Episcopal throne per saltum, yet there are not a few examples 
that this rule was transgressed. 

Augustine, when he created a "bishopric at Fassnla, presented 
Antonius, a reader (the very position Chrysostom now filled) 
to the Primate, who ordained him without scruple on Augustine's 
recommendation. Aug. Ep. 261 (ad Caelest.) Cyprian, Ambrose, 
and Nestorius are celebrated instances of the consecration of 
laymen to bishoprics. 



CI 



CHAPTEE Y. 

NARROW ESCAPE FROM PERSECUTION — HIS ENTRANCE INTO A MONASTERY 
— THE MONASTICISM OF THE EAST. A.D. 372. 

About this time, 372-373, while Chrysostom was still 
residing in Antioch, he narrowly escaped suffering the 
penalties of an imperial decree issued by Yalentinian and 
Yalens against the practisers of magical arts, or possessors 
even of magical books. A severe search was instituted 
after suspected persons ; soldiers were everywhere on the 
watch to detect offenders. The persecution was carried 
on with peculiar cruelty at Antioch, where it had been 
provoked by the detection of a treasonable act of divi- 
nation. The twenty-four letters of the alphabet were 
arranged at intervals round the rim of a kind of charger, 
which was placed on a tripod, consecrated by magic songs 
and frequent ceremonies. The diviner, habited as a 
heathen priest, in linen robes, sandals, and with a fillet 
wreathed about his head, chanted a hymn to Apollo, the 
god of prophecy, while a ring in the centre of the charger 
was slipped rapidly round a slender thread. The letters 
in front of which the ring successively stopped indicated 
the character of the oracle. The ring on this occasion 
was supposed to have pointed to the first four letters in 
the name of the future Emperor, © E O A. Theodorus, 
and probably many others who had the misfortune to own 
the fatal syllables were executed. There were, of course, 
multitudes of eager informers, and zealous judges, who 
strove to allay the suspicious fears of the Emperors, and 
to procure favour for themselves by vigorous and whole- 



62 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. V. 

sale prosecutions. Neither age, nor sex, nor rank were 
spared ; women and children, senators and philosophers, 
were dragged to the tribunals and committed to the 
prisons of Rome and Antioch from the most distant parts 
of Italy and Asia. Many destroyed their libraries in 
alarm — so many innocent books were liable to be repre- 
sented as mischievous or criminal ; and thus much valu- 
able literature perished. 1 It was during this dreadful 
time, when suspicion was instantly followed by arrest, and 
arrest by imprisonment, torture, and probably death, that 
Chrysostom chanced to be walking with a friend to the 
Church of the Martyr Babylas outside the city. As they 
passed through the gardens by the banks of the Orontes, 
they observed fragments of a book floating down the 
stream. Curiosity led them to fish it out ; but, to their 
dismay, on examining it, they found that it was inscribed 
with magical formulae, and, to increase their alarm, a 
soldier was approaching at no great distance. At first 
they knew not how to act ; they feared the book had been 
cast into the river by the artifice of an informer to entrap 
some unwary victim. They determined, however, to throw 
their dangerous discovery back into the river, and happily 
the attention or suspicions of the soldier were not roused. 
Chrysostom always gratefully looked back to this escape 
as a signal instance of God's mercy and protection. 2 

It must have been soon after this incident and previous 
to the edict of persecution against the monks issued by 
Yalens in 373, that Chrysostom exchanged what might 
be called the amateur kind of monastic life passed in his 
own home for the monastery itself. Whether his mother 
was now dead or had become reconciled to the separation, 
or whether her son's passionate enthusiasm for monastic 
retirement became irresistible, it is impossible to deter- 

1 Zosimus, 1. iv. 13-15. Aminian. 2 In Ac. Apost. Horn. 38, in fine. 

Marcell. xxix. c. i. 



Cn. V.] RISE OF MONASTICISM. 63 

mine. His mother is not mentioned by him in his 
writings after this point, except in allusion to the past, 
which is a strong presumption that she was no longer 
living. Bishop Meletius would probably have endeavoured 
to detain him for some active work in the Church, but 
he was now in exile ; and to Flavian, the successor of 
Meletius, Chrysostom was possibly not so intimately known. 

During the first four centuries of the Christian era, the 
enthusiasm for monastic life prevailed with ever- increasing 
force. We are, perhaps, naturally inclined to associate 
monasticism chiefly with the Western Christianity of the 
Middle Ages. But the original and by far the most pro- 
lific parent of monasticism was the East. There were 
always ascetics in the Christian Church ; yet asceticism 
is the product not so much of Christianity as of the East ; 
of the oriental temperament, which admires and cul- 
tivates it ; of the oriental climate, which makes it tolera- 
ble even when pushed to the most rigorous extremes. 
Asceticism is the natural practical expression of that 
deeply-grounded conviction of an essential antagonism 
between the flesh and spirit which pervades all oriental 
creeds. Even the monastic form of it was known in the 
East before Christianity. The Essenes in Judsea, the 
Therapeutre in Egypt, were prototypes of the active and 
contemplative communities of monks. 

The primitive ascetics of the Christian Church were not 
monks. They were persons who raised themselves above 
the common level of religious life by exercises in fasting, 
prayer, study, alms- giving, celibacy, bodily privations of 
all kinds. These habits obtained for them great admi- 
ration and reverence. Such persons are frequently desig- 
nated by writers of the first three centuries as ' an ascetic,' 
6 a follower of the religious ascetics.' 1 But they did not 
form a class distinctly marked off by dress and habitation 

1 Cyril . Catech. x. n. 19. Athanas. Synopsis. 



64 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. V. 

from the rest of the world, like the monks or even the 
anchorites of later time. They lived in the cities or 
wherever then- home might be, and were not subject 
to any rules beyond those of their own private making. 
Eusebius calls them cnrovhaioi, ' earnest persons ; ' and 
Clemens Alexandrinus skKsktwv itXsfCTorspoi i more elect 
than the elect. 5 1 Midway between the primitive ascetic 
and the fully-developed monk must be placed the an- 
chorite or hermit, who made a step in the direction of 
monasticism by withdrawing altogether from the city or 
populous places into the solitudes of mountain or desert. 
Persecution assisted the impulse of religious fervour. 
Paul retired to the Egyptian Thebaid during the perse- 
cution of Decius in a.d. 251, and Antony during that of 
Maximin in a.d. 812. They are justly named the fathers 
or founders of the anchorites, because, though not actually 
the first, they were the most distinguished ; and the 
fame of their sanctity, their austerities, their miracles, 
produced a tribe of followers. The farther Antony re- 
tired into the depths of the wilderness, the more nu- 
merous became his disciples. They grouped their cells 
around the habitation of the saintly father, and out of the 
clusters grew in process of time the monastery. A 
number of cells ranged in lines like an encampment, not 
incorporated in one building, was called a ( Laura' or 
street. 2 This was the earliest and simplest kind of 
monastic establishment. It was a community, though 
without much system or cohesion. 

The real founder of the Ccenobia or monasteries in the 
East, was the Egyptian Pachomius ; he was the Benedict 
of the East. His rule was that most generally adopted, 
not only in Egypt but throughout the oriental portions 

1 Euseb. 1. vi. c. 11. Clemens whence it appears that Laura, or Labra, 
Alex. Horn. Quis Dives salvetur? was the name of an ecclesiastical dis- 

2 Vide Epiphan. 69. Haeres. n. i., trict in Alexandria. 



Ch. v.] progress of monasticism. 65 

of the empire. He and Antony had now been dead about 
twenty years, and Hilarius, the pupil and imitator of 
Antony, had lately introduced monasticism on the Pacho- 
mian model into Syria. In about fifty years more, the 
nomadic Saracens will gaze with veneration and awe at 
the spectacle of Simeon on his pillar, forty miles from 
Antioch. Thousands will come to receive baptism at his 
hands ; his image will have been placed over the entrance 
of the shops in Koine. 1 The spirit had been already 
caught in the West. The feelings of abhorrence with 
which the Italians first beheld the wild-looking Egyptian 
monks who accompanied Athanasius to Rome had soon 
been exchanged for veneration. The example of Mar- 
cellina, and the exhortations of her brother Ambrose of 
Milan, had converted multitudes of women to take vows of 
celibacy. 2 Most of the little islands on the coasts of the 
Adriatic could boast of their monasteries or cells. 3 St. 
Martin built his religious houses near Poitiers and 
Tours, and was followed to his grave by two thousand 
brethren. 4 But St. Jerome, perhaps, more than anyone 
else, promoted the advance of monasticism in the West. 
Born on the borders of East and West, 5 he mingled with 
the Eastern Church at Antioch and Constantinople, and 
in the desert of Chalcis had inured himself to the most 
severe forms of oriental asceticism, and returned to Rome 
eager and able to impart to others a kindred spirit of 
enthusiasm for the ascetic life. A little later, early in 
the fifth century, John Cassianus, president of a religious 
establishment in Marseilles, propagated monastic insti- 
tutions of an oriental type in the south of France, and 
made men conversant with the system by his work on the 

1 Theod. Lector. II. 1. c. col. 102- 3 Baron. 398, 49-52 ; GieseLI.ii. 251. 
104. * Sozom. III. 14; Sulp. Severus. 

2 Jerome, Ep. 77, 5 ; Ambrose de 5 At Stridon, on the frontiers of 
Virgin, i. 10, 11. Pannonia and Dalmatia. 

F 



6Q LIFE AXD TB1ES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. V. 

rules of the cloister. These were the scattered forces 
which in the West awaited the master niind arid strong 1 
hand of Benedict to mould and discipline them into a 
mighty system. The nearest approach in the West to the 
Egyptian system of Pachomius was among the Bene- 
dictines of Camaldoli. 

There is every reason to suppose on general grounds, 
and the supposition is corroborated by notices in the 
writings of Chrysostom, that the monasteries near Antioeh, 
like the rest of the Syrian monasteries, were based on the 
Paehomian model. Pachomius was a native of the Thebaid, 
born in a.d. 292. He began to practise ascetism as a 
hermit, but, according to the legend, was visited by an 
angel, who commanded him to promote the salvation of 
other men's souls besides his own, and presented him 
with a brazen tablet, on which were inscribed the rules of 
the Order which he was to found. He- established his 
first community on Tabennse, an island in the Nile, which 
became the parent of a numerous offspring. Pachomius 
had the satisfaction in his lifetime of seeing- eight monas- 
teries, containing in all 3,000 monks, acknowledging his 
rule ; and after his death, in the first half of the fifth 
century, their numbers had swelled to 50,000. l Chry- 
sostom exulted with Christian joy and pride over the 
spectacle of ' Egypt, that land which had been the mother 
of pagan literature and art, which had invented and 
propagated every species of witchcraft, now despising all 
her ancient customs, and holding up the Cross, in the 
desert no less if not more than in the cities : . . . for the 
sky was not more beautiful, spangled with its hosts of 
stars, than the desert of Egypt studded in all directions 
with the habitations of monks.' 2 

By the Paehomian rule no one was admitted as a full 

1 Sozom. iii. 14. Palladium Hist. 2 In Matt. Horn. 8, p. 87. 

Lausiaca. 38. 



Cm V.] PACHOMTAJSI MONASTERIES. 67 

monk till after tliree years of probation, during which 
period he was tested by the most severe exercises. If 
willing, after that period, to continue the same exercises, 
he was admitted without further ceremony beyond making 
a solemn declaration that he would adhere to the rules of 
the monastery. That no irrevocable vow was taken by 
the members of the monastery near Antioch which Chry- 
sostom joined, seems proved by his return to the city after 
a residence in the monastery of several years' duration. 
According to Sozomen, the several parts of the dress 
worn by Pachomian monks had a symbolical meaning. 
The tunic (a linen garment reaching as far as the knees) 
had short sleeves, to remind the wearers that they should 
be prompt to do such honest work only as needed no con- 
cealment. The hood was typical of the innocence and 
purity of infants, who wore the same kind of covering ; 
the girdle and scarf, folded about the back, shoulders, and 
arms, were to admonish them that they should be per- 
petually ready to do active service for God. Each cell 
was inhabited by three monks. They took their chief 
meal in a refectory, and ate in silence, 1 with a veil so 
arranged over the face that they could see only what was 
on the table. No strangers were admitted, except travel- 
lers, to whom they were bound, by the rule of their Order, 
to show hospitality. The common meal or supper took 
place at 3 o'clock, 2 up to which time they usually fasted. 
When it was concluded, a hymn was sung, of which Chry- 
sostom gives us a specimen, though not in metrical form. 3 
' Blessed be God, who nourisheth me from my youth up, 
who giveth food to all flesh : fill our hearts with joy and 
gladness, that we, having all sufficiency at all times, may 
abound unto every good work, through Jesus Christ our 

1 The custom of one monk reading Cass. 1. iv. c. 17; Sozom. iii. 14; 
the Scriptures aloud during dinner Jerome's translation of the rule, 
was first adopted, according to Cassian, 2 But sometimes later, vide p. 63. 

in the Cappadocian monasteries.— 3 Horn, in 3fatt. 55, vol. vii. p. 545. 

f 2 



68 LIFE AND TULES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. V. 

Lord, with. Whom be glory, and honour, and power to 
Thee, together with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, 
Amen. Glory to Thee, Lord ! Glory to Thee, Holy One ! 
Glory to Thee, King, who hast given us food to make us 
glad ! Fill us with the Holy Spirit, that we may be found 
well pleasing in thy sight, and not ashamed when Thou 
rewardest every man according to his works.' 

The whole community in a Pachomian monastery was 
divided into twenty-four classes, distinguished by the 
letters of the Greek alphabet ; the most ignorant, for 
instance, under class Iota, the more learned under Xi 
or Zeta, such letters being in shape respectively the 
simplest and the most complicated in the alphabet. 
Those hours which were not devoted to services or study 
were occupied by manual labour, partly to supply them- 
selves with the necessaries of life, partly to guard against 
the incursion of evil thoughts. There was a proverbial 
saying attributed to some of the old Egyptian fathers, 
that c a labouring monk was assaulted by one devil only, 
but an idle one by an innumerable legion. 5 They wove 
baskets and mats, agriculture was not neglected, nor even, 
among the Egyptian monks, ship-building. Palladius, 
who visited the Egyptian monasteries about the close of 
the fourth century, found, in the monastery of Panopolis, 
which contained 300 members, 15 tailors, 7 smiths, 4 car- 
penters, 12 camel -drivers, 15 tanners. Each monastery 
in Egypt had its steward, and a chief steward stationed 
at the principal settlement had the supervision of all the 
rest. All the products of monkish labour were shipped 
under his inspection on the Nile for Alexandria. With 
the proceeds of their sale, stores were- purchased for the 
monasteries, and the surplus was distributed amongst the 
sick and poor. 1 

A monastery founded on this model might be fairly 

1 Sozom. iii. 14, 15 ; Cassian do Coenob. Instit. iv. x. 22. 



Cn. V.] EASTERN AND WESTERN MONKS. 69 

described as a kind of village containing- an industrial and 
religious population ; and had the Eastern monks adhered 
to this simple and innocent way of life, such communities 
might have become more and more schools of learning, 
centres of civilisation, and homes of piety. But they 
were increasingly forgetful of the wholesome saying of 
Antony, that a monk in the city was like ' a fish out of 
water.' Instead of attending exclusively to their pious 
and industrial exercises, they mixed themselves up with 
the theological and political contests which too often con- 
vulsed the cities of the Eastern Empire. Their influence 
or interference was frequently the reverse of peace- making, 
judicious, or Christian. They would rush with fanatical 
fury into the city, to rescue the orthodox, or with equal 
violence to attack those whom they considered heretical. 
The evil had grown to such a height by the reign of 
Arcadius, that a law was passed by which monks Avere 
strictly forbidden to make such outrages on civil order, 
and bishops were commanded to prosecute the authors of 
such attempts. 1 Eastern monasticism, in fact, partook of 
the character which distinguished the Eastern Church as 
a whole, and which we may regard as one principal cause 
of its corruption and decay. A certain stability, sobriety, 
self-control, a law-making and law-respecting spirit, as 
it is the peculiar merit of the Western, so the want of 
it is the peculiar defect of the Oriental temperament. 
Hence a curious co-existence of extremes ; the passions, 
unnaturally repressed at one outlet by intense asceticism, 
burst forth with increased fury at another. He who had 
subdued his body in the wilderness or on the mountains 
by fastings and macerations, entertained the most impla- 
cable animosity towards pagans and heretics, and fought 
them like a ruffian (the word is not too strong for truth), 
when some tumult in an adjacent city afforded him an 

1 Cod. Theod. ix. 40, 16. 



70 LIFE AM) TIMES OF ST. CHKYSOSTOM. [Ch. V. 

opportunity for this robust mode of displaying and defend- 
ing his orthodoxy. Western roonasticism, on the other 
hand, is distinguished by more gravity, more of the old 
Roman quality, a love of stern discipline. It did not run 
to such lengths of fanatical asceticism, and consequently 
was exempt from such disastrous reactions. It never 
produced such a caricature of the anchorite as Simeon 
Stylites, or such savage zealots as the monkish bands who 
dealt their sturdy blows in the religious riots of Constan- 
tinople and Alexandria. From the notices scattered up 
and down Chrysostom's writings of the monasteries in the 
neighbourhood of Antioch, it appears that they conformed 
in all essential respects to the Pachomian model. We 
might anticipate, indeed, that where such a man as 
Diodorus was president or visitor, they would be con- 
ducted on a simple and rational system. 

South of Antioch were the mountainous heights of 
Silpius and Casius, whence rose the springs which in a 
variety of channels found their way into the city, pro- 
vided it with a constant and abundant supply of the 
purest water, and irrigated the gardens for which it was 
celebrated. 1 In this mountain region dwelt the communi- 
ties of monks, in separate huts or cells (/<d\v/3ai, 2 ), but 
subject to an abbot, and a common rule. Chrysostom has 
in more passages than one furnished us with a description 
of their ordinary costume, fare, and way of life. He is 
fond of depicting their simple, frugal, and pious habits, in 
contrast to the artificial and luxurious manners of the 
gay and worldly people of the city. They were clad in 
coarse garments of goat's hair or camel's hair, sometimes 
of skins, over their linen tunics, which were worn both by 
night and day. 3 Before the first rays of sunlight, the 

1 Vide Muller de Antiq. Antioch. 3 In Matt, Horn. 68, c. 3. When 
c. 3. . they received the Eucharist, which 

2 Chrysost. in Matt. Horn. G9, p. 652. they did twice a week, on Sundays 



Oh. V.] DAILY LIFE OF THE MONKS. 71 

abbot went round, and struck those monks who were still 
sleeping with his foot, to wake them. When all had 
risen, — fresh, healthy, fasting, they sang together, under 
the precentorship of their abbot, a hymn of praise to God. 
The hymn being ended, a common prayer was offered up 
(again under the leadership of their abbot), and then 
each at sunrise went to his allotted task, some to read, 
others to write, others to manual labour, by which they 
made a good deal to supply the necessities of the poor. 
Four hours in the day, the third, the sixth, the ninth, 
and some time in the evening, were appointed for prayers 
and psalms. When the daily work was concluded, they 
sat down, or rather reclined, on strewn grass, to their 
common meal, which was sometimes eaten out of doors by 
moonlight, and consisted of bread and water only, with 
occasionally, for invalids, a little vegetable food and oil. 
This frugal repast was followed by hymns, after which 
they betook themselves to their straw couches, and slept, 
as Chrysostom observes, free from those anxieties and 
apprehensions which beset the worldly man. There was 
no need of bolts and bars, for there was no fear of robbers. 
The monk had no possession but his body and soul, and if 
his life was taken he would regard it as an advantage, for 
he could say that to live was Christ, and to die was gain. 1 
Those words 6 mine and thine,' those fertile causes of in- 
numerable strifes, were unknown. 2 No lamentations were 
to be heard when any of the brethren died. They did not 
say, such a one is dead, but, he has been perfected (tsts- 
Xsi'coTai), and he was carried forth to burial amidst hymns 
of praise, thanksgiving for his release, and the prayers of 
his companions that they too might soon see the end of 
their labours and struggles, and be permitted to behold 

and Saturdays, they threw off their 1 In Matt. Horn. 68, c. 3 ; 69, c. 3 ; 

coats of skins and loosened their in 1 Tim. Horn. 14, c. 4, 5. 
girdles.— Sozom. iii. 14. 2 In Matt. Horn. 72, vol. vii. p. 671. 



72 LIFE AND TBIES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. V. 

Jesus Christ. 1 Such was the simple and industrial kind 
of monastic body to which Chrjsostom for a time united 
himself ; and to the end of his life he regarded such com- 
munities with the greatest admiration and sympathy. 
But he never failed to maintain also the duty of work 
against those who represented the perfection of the 
Christian life to consist in mere contemplation and prayer. 
Such a doctrine of otiose Christianity he proved to be 
based on a too exclusive attention to certain passages in 
the New Testament. If, for instance, our blessed Lord 
said to Martha, ' Thou art careful and troubled about 
many things, but one thing is needful ' ; or again, ' Take 
no thought for the morrow'; or, c Labour not for the meat 
that perisheth' — all such passages were to be balanced 
and harmonised by others, as, for example, St. Paul's ex- 
hortation to the Thessalonians to be ' quiet and to do 
their own business,' and ' let him that stole steal no 
more, but labour with his hands that which is good, that 
he may have to give to him that needeth.' He points out 
that the words of our Lord do not inculcate total absti- 
nence from work, but only censure an undue anxiety 
about earthly things, to the exclusion or neglect of 
spiritual concerns. The contemplative form of monas- 
ticism, based on misconception of Holy Scripture, had, he 
observes, seriously injured the interests of Christianity, 
causing it to be derided as a source of indolence. 2 

1 In Ep. ] Tim. Horn. 14, c. 5. 2 In Joh. Horn. 44, c. 1. 



73 



CHAPTER VI. 

WORKS PRODUCED DURING HIS MONASTIC LIFE — THE LETTERS TO 
DEMETRIUS AND STELECHIUS — TREATISES ADDRESSED TO THE OP- 
PONENTS OF MONASTICISM — LETTER TO STAGIRIUS. 

Several treatises were composed by Ckrysostom during 
his monastic life. Among the first must be placed two 
books addressed to Demetrius and Stelechius. Of these 
the former was evidently written soon after the com- 
mencement of his retreat, for he speaks of having recently 
determined to take the step, and of the petty anxieties 
about food and other personal comforts which had at 
first unsettled his purpose a little. But he had soon 
conquered these hankerings after the more luxurious life 
which he had abandoned. It seemed to him a disgrace 
that one to whom heaven and celestial joys were offered, 
such as eye had not seen nor ear heard, should be so 
hesitating and timorous, when those who undertook the 
management of public affairs did not shrink from dangers 
and toil, and long journeys, and separation from wife and 
children, and perhaps unfavourable criticism, but only 
enquired whether the office was honourable and lucrative. 1 
The scope of the books is to animate torpid characters 
to a warmer piety, first by drawing a lively picture of 
the depravity of the times, secondly by a glowing descrip- 
tion of the fervent energy of apostles and apostolic saints, 
and insisting that those lofty heights of Christian holiness 
were not unattainable by the Christian of his own day, if 

1 De Compunct. i. c. 6. 



74 LIFE AND TDIES OF ST. CJHRYSOSTOM. [Cm VI 

he bent tlie whole energy of his will, aided by Divine 
grace, to the attempt. 

• So great,' he observes, "was the depravity of the tinies, 
that if a stranger were to compare the precepts of the 
Gospel with the actual practice of society, he would infer 
that men were not the disciples, but the enemies of Christ. 
And the most fatal symptom was then total unconscious- 
ness of this deep corruption. Society was like a body 
which was outwardly vigorous, but concealed a wasting 
fever within ; or like an insane person who says and does 
all manner of shocking things, but, instead of being 
ashamed, glories in the fancied possession of superior 
wisdom.' l Chrysostorn applies the test of the principal 
precepts of morality in the Sermon on the Mount to the 
existing state of Christian morals. Everyone of them 
was shamelessly violated. A kind of regard, superstitious 
or hypocritical, was paid to the command in the letter 
which was broken in the spirit. Persons, for instance, 
who scrupled to use the actual expressions 'fool' or 
'Raca,' heaped all kinds of opprobrious epithets on their' 
neighbours. 2 So the command to be reconciled with a 
brother before approaching the altar was really broken 
though formally kept. Men gave the kiss of peace at 
the celebration of Holy Communion when admonished by 
the deacon so to do. but continued to nourish resentful 
feelings in the heart all the same. 3 Vainglory and 
ostentation robbed prayer, fasting and almsgiving of their 
merit : and as for the precept ' Judge not,'* a most un- 
charitable spirit of censoriousness pervaded every cla^s of 
society, including monks and ecclesiastics. 4 Contrast with 
this false and hollow religion of the world the condition 
of one in whom a deep compunction for sin, and a genuine 
love of Jesus Christ, was awakened. The whole multitude 
of vain frivolous passions was dispersed like dust before 

1 C. 1. ; C. 2. C. 3. 1 5. 



Cn. VI.; EPISTLE TO DEMETEICS. 75 

the wind. So it was with St. Paul. Having once turned 
the eye of his soul towards heaven, and being entranced 
by the beauty of that other world, he could not stoop to 
earth again. As a beggar, in some gloomy hovel, if he 
saw a monarch glittering with gold and radiant with 
jewels, might altogether for a time forget the squalor of 
his dwelling-place in his eagerness to get inside the 
palace of the king, so St. Paul forgot and despised the 
poverty and hardship of this present world because the 
whole energy of his being was directed to the attainment 
of that heavenly city. 1 But men objected to the citation 
of apostolic examples. Paul and Peter, they said, were 
superhuman characters ; models beyond our limited powers. 
* Nay, 5 Chrysostom replies, ' these are feeble excuses. 
The Apostles were in all essential points like ourselves. 
Did they not breathe the same kind of air ? eat the same 
kind of food ? were not some of them married men ? did 
they not follow mechanical trades? nay more, had not 
some of them deeply sinned? Men at the present day 
did not indeed receive grace at baptism to work miracles, 
but they received enough to enable them to lead a good 
and holy Christian life. 2 And the highest blessing of 
Christ— his invitation to those who were called " blessed 
children " to inherit the kingdom prepared for them — was 
addressed, not to those who had wrought miracles, but to 
those who had ministered to himself through feeding the 
hungry, entertaining the stranger, visiting the sick and 
the prisoners^ who were his brethren. But grace, though 
undoubtedly given by God, required man's own co- 
operation to become effectual. Otherwise, since God is 
no respecter of persons, it would have resided in equal 
measure in all men ; whereas we see that with one man 
it remains, from another it departs ; a third is never 
affected by it at all.' 3 The second book on the same 
1 C. 7. - C. s. 3 C 9. 



76 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. VI. 

subject, addressed to another friend, named Stelechius, is 
an expression of more rapturous and highly-wrought 
feeling, and is more rhetorical in style. His description 
in the beginning of the blessed freedom of the monk's 
life from secular vanities and cares, his remarks on David 
and St. Paul, 1 two of his most favourite characters, and 
still more his masterly enumeration of the manifold ways 
in which God manifests his providential care for man, 2 well 
deserve to be read. They are too long to be translated 
here in full, and a paraphrase would very inadequately 
represent such passages of which the peculiar beauty 
consists in the language more even than in the ideas. 
One special interest of these books, written immediately 
after his retirement from the world, is that they put 
clearly before us what it was which drove him and many 
another to the monastic life. It was a sense of the glaring 
and hideous contrast between the Christianity of the 
Gospel and the Christianity of ordinary society. A kind 
of implacable warfare, 3 as he expresses it, seemed to be 
waged in the world against the commands of Christ ; and 
he had therefore determined, by seclusion from the world, 
to seek that kind of life which he saw exhibited in the 
Gospels, but nowhere else. 4 

But the largest and most powerful work which Chry- 
sostom produced during this period was occasioned by the 
decree of the Emperor Valens in a.d. 373 — a decree which 
struck at the roots of monasticism. It directed that 
monks should be dragged from their retreats, and com- 
pelled to discharge their obligations as citizens, either by 
serving in the army, or performing the functions of any 
civil office to which they might be appointed. 5 The edict 

1 C. 1, 2, 3. 2 C. 5. Vide Suicer sub v. ffrpareve^. The 

3 exfya an-fjpvKTos, lib. i. c. 5. Egyptian monks, however, do seem to 

4 Lib. i. c. 4. hare been specially forced into the 
6 The word in the decree is ' militare,' army. De Broglie, v. 303; Gibbon, 

but this term appears to be applied iv. ; Milman, iii. 47, ' History of 
to civil duties as well as military. Christianity.' 



Ch. VI.] PERSECUTION OF MONKS BY VALENS, 77 

is said to have been enforced with considerable rigour, 
and in Egypt this seems to have been the case. But it 
was evidently far from complete or universal in its opera- 
tion. None of Chrysostom's brethren appear to have 
been compelled to return to the city ; certainly he himself 
was not. But they were liable, of course, to the persecu- 
tion which, under the shelter of the decree, all the enemies 
of their order directed against them. These enemies of 
monasticism were of several kinds. There were the 
zealous adherents of the old paganism ; men like Libanius, 
who were opposed to Christianity on principle, and espe- 
cially to the monastic form of it, as encouraging idleness, 
and the dereliction of the duties of good citizens. There 
were also the more worldly-minded Christians, who had 
adopted Christianity more from impulse or conformity 
than from conviction, and who disliked the standing pro- 
test of monastic life against their own frivolity. They 
were irritated also by the influence which the monks often 
acquired over their wives and children, sometimes alluring 
the latter from that lucrative line of worldly life which 
their fathers had marked out for them. And lastly, there 
were those who regretted that some men should have 
taken up a position of direct antagonism to the world, 
instead of mingling with it, and infusing good leaven into 
the mass of evil. The treatise of Chrysostom addressed 
' to the assailants of monastic life ' was intended to meet 
most of these objections. 

A friend had brought the terrible tidings to his retreat 
of the authorised persecution which had just broken out. 
He heard it with indescribable horror. It was a sacrilege 
far worse than the destruction of the Jewish Temple. 
That an Emperor (an Arian, indeed, yet professing him- 
self Christian) should organise the persecution, and that 
some actually baptised persons should take, as his friend 
informed him, a part in it, was an intolerable aggravation 



fO LITE AND TIMES OP -7 CHEYSOSTOM. Th. VI 

of the infliction. He would rather lie than — iane- ; snhh 
a calamity, and was ready to exclaim w ith Elijah. £ _Vow. 

Lord, take away hit life ! ' His friend ronsed Li— tfcm 
this state ::" lesj: :a lencj by suggesting that, instead ef 
gi vin g way to useless lamentations, he she "Id write an 
admonitory treatise to the originators and abettors ef this 
horrible persecution. At first Chrysostom refused, partly 
from a feeling of ineompet-eney. ra?nly n;n a dreaa :: 
exposing to the pagans by his writings some ef tlie in- 
ternal corruptions, dissensions, end weaknesses ef the 
Church. His friend replies that these w^re already bnt 
too notorious: and en for the snnerings of the ne:nh-. they 
formed the tepie of pneh: conversation, tee often ::' 
public jest. In the market-place and in the doe-tens" 
shops the subject was freely canvassed, and many boasted 
[ : the part which they had taken against the vi : tines. i I 
was the first to ley hands en stick a rrenk." one wenid 
cry. • and to give him a blow : ' or. ■ I was the nrst te drs- 
c over his :ehh or. "I stimulated the : ulge against hint 
toarre than anyone." Snch was :he spirit :: :a~aelty and 
profanity by which even Christians were animated: and. 
as f:e the pagans, they derided both parties, Reused ly 
these area Ink communications, the indignation of Chry- 
sostom.no longer hesitated t: set a: : nt the task. 1 

His pity, he says, was excited chiefly for the persecu- 
tors : they were pnrchasing eternal misery for themselves. 
while the future reward of their" victims wonld be in pro- 
rta : n t ; the magnitude of their present sufferings, since 
c Blessed were those whom men should bete, persecnte. 
and revile foi Christ's sake, and great was to be their 
reward in heaven.' - 

I: persecnte monks was to hinder that parity of life to 
which Christ attached sc leej a. imj rtance. It might 
be objected. Cannot men lead lives e contaminated at 
C 1-3. : 4 



Cn. VI.; MONASTICISM : WHY NECESSARY. TO 

home? to which Chrysostoin replies that he heartily 
wishes they could, and that such good order and morality 
lniofht "be established in cities as to make monasteries mi- 
necessary. But at present such gross iniquity prevailed 
in large towns, that men of pious aspirations were com- 
pelled to fly to the mountain or the desert. The blame 
should fall, not on those who escaped from the city, but 
on those who made life there intolerable to virtuous men. 
He trusted the time might come when these refugees 
would be able to return with safety to the world. 1 

If it was objected that on this principle of reasoning 
the mass of mankind was condemned, he could only reply, 
in the words of Christ himself, ' Xarrow is the way which 
leadeth nnto life, and few there be that find it.' We 
must not honour a multitude before truth. If all flesh 
was once destroyed except eight persons, we cannot be 
surprised if the number of men eventually saved shall be 
few. ' I see,' he says, ' a constant perpetration of crimes 
which are all condemned by Christ as meriting the 
punishment of hell — adultery, fornication, envy, anger, 
evil speaking, and many more. The multitude which is 
engaged in this wickedness is unmolested, but the monks 
who fly from it themselves, and persuade others to take 
flight also, are persecuted without mercy. 5 So much for 
the Christianity of the world.' 2 

In Book II. he expresses his astonishment that fathers 
should so little understand what was best for their sons 
as to deter them from studying 'the true philosophy.' 
But in combatting this error he will put forward all that 
can be urged on their side. He imagines the case of a 
pagan father, possessed of great worldly distinction and 
wealth. He has an only son, in whom all his pride and 
hopes are centred ; one whom he expects to surpass hini- 
self in riches and honour. Suddenly this son becomes 

1 C. .5-7. * C 8. 



80 LIFE ANB TDLFS OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. VI 

converted to monastic-ism ; this rich heir flies to the 
mountains, puts on a dress coarser than that of the 
meanest servant, toils at the menial occupations of 
gardening and drawing water, becomes lean and pale. 
AH the schemes of his father for the future are frustrated, 
all past efforts for his education seem to have been 
squandered. The little vessel which was his pride and 
pleasure is wrecked at the very mouth of the harbour 
from which it was setting out on the voyage of life. The 
parent has no longer any pleasure in life : he mourns for 
his son as for one already dead. 1 

Having thus stated the case on his adversary's side as 
strongly as possible. Chrysostom begins his own defence 
by asking which would be best, that a man should be 
subject to thirst all his life, or wholly exempt from it ? 
Surely to be exempt from it. Apply this to the moral 
appetites — love, avarice, and the rest. The monk is 
exempt from them ; the man of the world is distracted by 
them, if not overwhelmed. Again, if the monk has no 
wealth of his own. he exercises a powerful influence in 
directing the wealth of others. Eeligious men will part 
with much of their riches according to his suggestions : if 
one refuses, another will give. The resources, in fact, of 
the monk are quite inexhaustible : many will subscribe to 
supply his wants or to execute his wishes, as Crito said 
that he and his friends would subscribe for Socrates. It 
is impossible to deprive the monk of his wealth or of his 
home: if you strip him of everything he has. he rejoices. 
and thanks you for helping him to live the life which he 
desires ; and as for his home, the world is his home : one 
place is the same as another to him: he needs nothing but 
the pure air of heaven, wholesome streams, and herbs. 
As for high place and rank, history suffices to teach us 
that the desert does not destroy, and the palace does not 

1 c. i. 2. 



Cn. VL] INFLUENCE OF TIIE MONK 81 

give, true nobility. Plato — planting, watering, and eating 
olives — was a far nobler personage than Dionysius the 
Tyrant of Sicily, amidst all the wealth and splendour of a 
monarch. Socrates — clad in a single garment, with his 
bare feet and his meagre fare of bread, and dependent 
upon others for the mere necessaries of life— was a far 
more illustrious character than Archelaus, who often in- 
vited him, but in vain, to court. Real splendour and dis- 
tinction consisted not in fine raiment, or in positions of 
dignity and power, but Only in excellence of the soul and 
in philosophy. 1 

He then proceeds to maintain that the influence of the 
monk was inore powerful than that of the man of the 
world, however distinguished he might be. If he de- 
scended from his mountain solitude, and entered the city, 
the people flocked round him, and pointed him out with 
reverence and admiration, as if he were a messenger from 
heaven. His mean dress commanded more respect than 
the purple robe and diadem of the monarch. If he was 
required to interfere in matters of public interest, his 
influence was greater than that of the powerful or 
wealthy ; for he could speak before an emperor with bold- 
ness and freedom, and without incurring the suspicion of 
self-interested or ambitious motives. He was a more 
effectual comforter of the mourners than any one in a 
prosperous worldly condition was likely to be. If a father 
had lost his only son, the sight of other men's domestic 
happiness only revived his grief; but the society of the 
monk, who disdained the ties of home and family, and 
who talked to him of death as only a sleep, soothed his 
grief. Thus the man who wished his son to possess real 
honour and power would permit him to become a monk ; 
for monks who were once mere peasants had been visited 
in their cells and consulted by kings and ministers of state. 

1 C. 2-5. 
G 



82 LIFE AND TBIES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. YT. 

Chrysostom concludes this book by relating the history 
of one of his own brethren in the monastery, who, when 
first he desired to become a monk, had been disowned by 
his father, a wealthy and distinguished pagan, who 
threatened him with imprisonment, turned him out of 
doors, and allowed him almost to perish with hunger. 
But, finding him inflexible in his purpose, the father at 
last relented, and, at the time when Chrysostom. wrote, 
honoured, he might say venerated, that son, considering 
the others, who occupied distinguished positions in the 
world, scarcely worthy to be his servant. 1 

As the second book was intended to meet the objections 
of a pagan father, so the third contains admonitions to 
one who was professedly Christian, but worldly-minded, on 
the duty of parents in regard to the moral and religious 
education of their children. 

It appeared to him that the fathers of that day gave 
their sons none but worldly counsel, inculcated none but 
worldly industry and prudence, and encouraged to the 
emulation of none but worldly examples. 2 The force of 
habit was intensely strong, especially when pleasure co- 
operated with it, and parents, instead of counteracting 
habits of worldliness, promoted them by their own ex- 
ample. God led the Israelites through the wilderness as 
a kind of monastic training, to wean them from the luxu- 
rious and sensual habits of an Egyptian life; yet even 
then they hankered after the land of their bondage. How, 
then, could the children of parents who left them in the 
midst of the Egypt of vice, escape damnation P If they 
achieved anything good of themselves, it was speedily 
crushed by the flood of worldly conversation which issued 
from the parent. All those things which were condemned 
by Christ — as wealth, popularity, strife, an evil eye, 
divorce — were approved by parents of that day, and they 

1 C. 6-10. 2 C. 6. 



Ch. VL] WORLMINESS OF PARENTS. 83 

threw a veil over the ugliness of these vices, by giving 
them specious names. Devotion to the hippodrome and 
theatre was called fashionable refinement ; wealth was 
called freedom ; love of glory, high spirit ; folly, boldness ; 
prodigality, benevolence ; injustice, manliness. Virtues, 
on the contrary, were depreciated by opprobrious names : 
temperance was denominated rusticity ; equity, cowardice ; 
justice, unmanliness ; modesty, meanness ; endurance of 
injury, feebleness. He truly remarks, that nothing con- 
tributes so much to deter men from vice as calling vices 
plainly by their proper names. 1 

' How can children escape moral ruin, when all the 
labour of their fathers is bestowed on the provision of 
superfluous things — fine houses, dress, horses, beautiful 
statues, gilded ceilings — while they take no pains about 
the soul, which is far more precious than any ornament of 
erold ? ' And there were worse evils behind — vice too 
monstrous and unnatural to be named, but to which he 
was constrained to allude, because he felt that it was 
poisoning with deadly venom the very vitals of the social 
body. i Well,' but worldly men reply, ' Would you have us 
all turn philosophers, and let our worldly affairs go to 
ruin ? Nay, says Chrysostom, it is the want of the philo- 
sophic spirit and rule which ruins everything now ; it is 
your rich men — with troops of slaves and swarms of para- 
sites, eager for wealth and ambitious of distinction, build- 
ing fine houses, adding field to field, lending money at a 
usurious rate of interest — who propagate the strife and 
litigation, and envy, and murder, and general confusion, 
by which life is distracted. These are they who bring 
down the vengeance of Heaven, in the shape of droughts, 
and famines, and inundations, and earthquakes, and sub- 
mersion of cities, and pestilences. It is not the simple 

1 Compare similar remarks by Thu- Corcyrsean sedition on the misappliea- 
eydides, book iii.. in his account of the tion of names to vices. 2 C. 6, 1-. 

G 2 



84 LITE AM] TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [&l VI 

monk, or the philosophic Christian, who is contented with 
a hnmble dwelling, a mean dress, a little pl.t of ground. 
These last, shining like bright beacons in a dark place. 
hold np the lamp of philosophy On high, and endeavour to 

cnride those who are tossing on the open sea in a dark 
night into the haven of safety and repose.' ' 

1 In spite of law. disorder prevailed to such an extent, 
that the very idea of God's providence was lost. Men 

assigned the course of events to fate, or to the stars, or to 
chance, or to spontaneous force. God d:h indeed, still 

rule : but He was like a pilot in a storm, whose skill in 
managing and conducting the vessel in safety was not 
perceived or appreciated by the passengers. Owing to the 
confusion and fright caused by the raging of the elements. 
In the monastery, en the other hand, all was tranquillity 
and peace, as in a community of angels. He strenuously 
eombatted the error of supposing that sin was more \ :.:- 
donable in a man of the world than in a monk. Anger, 
uncleanness, swearing, and the like, were equally sinful in 
all. Christ made no distinctions, but propounded one 
standard of morality for all alike. Nothing had inflicted 
more injury on the moral tone of society than the sup- 
position that strictness of lite was demanded of the monk 
only.' 2 He strongly urges the advantage of sending youths 
for education to monasteries, even for so long a period 
as ten or twenty years, jlen consented, he says, to part 
with their children, foi the purpose of learning some art 
or trade, or even so low an accomplishment as rope- 
dancing; but when the object was to train their souls for 
Heaven, all kinds of impediments were raised. To object 
that few attained through residence in a monastery that 
perfection of spiritual life which some expected of them. 
was a mere excuse. In the case of worldly things, on 
which men's hearts were set. they though getting as 

: C ". 4. ■ " 



Oft VI.] CHARACTER OF THE TEEATISES. 85 

much as they could, not of reaching absolute perfection. 
A man did uot prevent his son from entering military ser- 
vice because the chances of his becoming a prefect were 
small ; why, then, hesitate to send your son to a monastery 
because all monks do not become angels ? ] 

These treatises are remarkable productions, and deserve 
to be read, not only because they exhibit Chrysostom's 
best power of argument and style, but also because they 
throw light upon the character of the man and the times 
in which he lived. He pleads his cause with the inge- 
nuity, as well as eloquence, of a man who had been trained 
for the law courts. We find, indeed, that his opinions on 
the advantages of the monastic life were modified as he 
grew older; but that bold condemnation of worldliness, 
that denunciation of a cold secularised Christianity, as 
contrasted with the purity of the Gospel standard, the 
deep aspirations after personal holiness, the desire to be 
filled with a fervent and overflowing love of Christ, the 
firm hold on the idea of a superintending Providence, 
amidst social confusion and corruption ; these we find, as 
here, so always, conspicuous characteristics of the man, 
and principal sources of his influence. 

From the frightful picture here drawn of social de- 
pravity, we perceive the value — we might say, the neces- 
sity — of monasteries, as havens of refuge for those who 
recoiled in horror from the surrounding pollution. It is 
clear also that the influence of the monks was considerable. 
Monasteries were recognised places of education, where 
pious parents could depend on their children beiug virtu- 
ously brought up. The Christian wife of a pagan or 
worldly husband could here find a safe home for her boy, 
where he conld escape the contamination of his father's 
influence or example. Chrysostoni relates, in C. 12, how 
a Christian lady in Antioch, being afraid of the wrath of 

1 C. 18, 19. 



86 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. VI. 

a harsh, and worldly-minded husband if she sent away her 
son to school at the monastery, induced one of the monks, 
a friend of Chrysostom's, to reside for a time in the city, 
in the character of pedagogue. The boy, thus subjected 
to his training, afterwards joined the society of the monks; 
but Chrysostom, fearing the consequences both to the 
youth and to the monastic body, should his father detect 
his secession, /persuaded him to return to the city, where 
he led an ascetic life, though not habited in monkish 
dress. Out of these monastic schools, after years of 
discipline and prayer, and study of the Word, there issued 
many a pastor and preacher, well-armed champions of the 
truth, strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might ; 
like Chrysostom himself, instant in season and out of 
season ; stern denouncers of evil, even in king's courts ; 
holding out the light of the Gospel in the midst of a dark 
and crooked generation. 

The foregoing extracts and paraphrases from these 
treatises prove also that among zealous Christians the 
monastic form of life was regarded as the highest ; that 
as philosophy was considered the highest flight in the 
intellectual culture of the pagan, so was asceticism re- 
garded as the highest attainment in the Christian's life ; 
it was to the education of the soul what philosophy was 
to the education of the mind, and hence it was called by 
the same name — ' philosophy.' Possessed by this idea, 
Chrysostom threw himself at this period of his life into 
the system with all the ardour of his nature. If asce- 
ticism was good, it was right to carry it as far as nature 
could bear it. He adopted the habits of an old member 
of the brotherhood, named Syrus, notorious for the se- 
verity of his self-inflicted discipline. The day and greater 
part of the night were spent in study, fastings, and vigils. 
Bread and water were his only habitual food. At the end 
of four years he proceeded a step farther. He withdrew 



Cn. VI.] EPISTLE TO STAGIRIUS. 87 

froin the community to one of those solitary caves with 
which the mountains overhanging Antioch on its southern 
side abounded. In fact, he exchanged the life of a monk 
for that of an anchorite. His frame endured this addi- 
tional strain for nearly two years, and then gave way. 
His health was so much shattered that he was obliged to 
abandon monastic life, and to return to the greater comfort 
of his home in Antioch. 1 

Meanwhile a friend of his, Stagirius by name — a person 
of noble birth, who, in spite of his father's opposition, 
had embraced monasticism — was reduced to a more de- 
plorable condition. While Chrysostom was confined to 
his house by illness, a friend common to him and Stagirius 
brought him the sad intelligence that Stagirius was 
affected with all the symptoms of demoniacal possession — 
wringing of the hands, squinting of the eyes, foaming at 
the mouth, strange inarticulate cries, shiverings, and 
frightful visions at night. 2 We shall perhaps find little 
difficulty in accounting for these distressing affections, as 
the consequence of excessive austerities. The young man, 
who formerly lived a gay life in the world, and in the 
midst of affluence, had in the monastery fared on bread 
and water only, often kept vigil all night long, spent his 
days in prayer and tears of penitence, preserved an 
absolute silence, and read so many hours continuously, 
that his friends and brother monks feared that his brain 
would become disordered. 3 Very probably it was, and 
hence his visions and convulsions ; but those were not 
days in which men readily attributed any strange pheno- 
mena, mental or bodily, to physical causes. We may 
believe in the action of a spirit world on the inhabitants 
of this earth ; but we require good evidence that any 
violent or strange affection of mind or body is due to a 

1 Pallad. Dial. c. v. lib. i. c. i. 

2 Ad Stag, a Dyem. vex., vol. i., 3 Lib. ii. c. 1. 



88 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHEYSOSTOM. [Ch. VI. 

directly spiritual agency, rather than to the operation of 
God according to natural law. The cases of demoniacs in 
the Gospel stand apart. Our Lord uses language which 
amounts to a distinct affirmation that those men were 
actually possessed by evil spirits. To use such expres- 
sions as e come out of him/ ' enter no more into him,' 
and the like, if there was no spirit concerned in the case 
at all, would have been, to say the least, a mere unmean- 
ing piece of acting, of which it would be shocking to 
suppose our Lord capable. But to admit the direct agency 
of spirit, when confirmed by such authoiitative testimony, 
is widely different from the hasty ascription to spiritual 
agency by an uncritical and unscientific age, of every 
thing which cannot be accounted for by the most super- 
ficial knowledge and observation. Chrysostom, of course, 
not being beyond his age in such matters, did not for a 
moment dispute the supposition that Stagirius was actu- 
ally possessed by a demon, but he displays a great deal of 
good sense in dealing with the case. As the state of his 
own health did not permit him to pay Stagirius a visit in 
person, he wrote his advice instead. He perceived the 
fatal temptation to despair in a man who imagined that 
the devil had got a firm hold upon him, and that every evil 
inclination proceeded directly from this demoniacal in- 
vader. He will not allow that the suggestion to suicide, 
of which Stagirius complained, came direct from the 
demon, but rather from his own despondency, 1 with which 
the devil had endeavoured to oppress him, that he might 
under cover of that, work his own purposes more effectu- 
ally, just as robbers attack houses in the dark. But this 
was to be shaken off by trust in God ; ' for the devil did 
not exercise a compulsory power over the hearts of men ; 
there must be a co-operation of the man's own will. Eve 
fell partly through her own inclination to sin: 'When 
she saw that the tree was good for food, and pleasant to 

1 Lib. ii. c. 1. 



Cn. VI. ] CONSOLES STAGIEIUS. 89 

the eyes, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat ; ' and 
if Adam was so easily persuaded to participate in her sin, 
he would have fallen even had no Devil existed. 

Chrysostom endeavours also to console his friend by 
going through the histories of saints, in all times who 
have been afflicted. His sufferings were not to be com- 
pared to those of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, 
and St. Paul. ' These afflictions were sent for remedial, 
purgatorial purposes — that the soul might be saved in the 
day of the Lord. It was not easy to say why such a 
person was tried by this or that form of suffering, but if 
we knew exactly God's motives, there would be no test of 
faith. The indispensable thing was, to be firmly convinced 
that whatever God sent was right. Some men were dis- 
turbed because the good were often troubled, and the 
wicked prosperous ; but such inequality in the distribution 
of reward and punishment in this life, suggested a future 
state, where they would be finally adjusted. The wicked 
who had here received his good things, would there 
receive his evil. 1 Stagirius had not been attacked by any 
demon when he was living in carelessness and worldly 
pleasure, but when he had buckled on his armour and 
appeared as an antagonist, then the devil descended to the 
assault. Hence he had no need to be ashamed of his 
affliction ; the only thing to be ashamed of was sin, and 
it was owing to his renunciation of sin that the devil 
assailed him. The real demoniacs were those who were 
carried away by the impulses of unregulated passions.' 
His summaries of the lives of the Old Testament saints, 
which fill the rest of the second book and most of the 
third, are very masterly, and display most intimate ac- 
quaintance with Holy Scripture in all its parts. A powerful 
mind and retentive memory had profited by six years of 
retirement largely devoted to study. 

1 Lib. i. c. 5-9. 



90 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. VH. 



CHAPTEK VII. 

ORDINATION AS DEACON DESCRIPTION OF ANTIOCH — WORKS COMPOSED 

DURING HIS D1ACONATE. A.D. 381-386. 

Probably one of the last acts of Bishop Meletius before 
he left Antioch to attend the Council of Constantinople in 
381, was to ordain Chrysostom a deacon. The bishop 
never returned. He died during the session of the council 
of which he was president, leaving both that and the see 
of Antioch distracted by the most deplorable factions. 
It will be remembered 1 that the Catholics of Antioch had, 
ever since the ill-judged mission of Lucifer of Cagliari, 
been divided between allegiance to Paulinus, a priest of 
the old Eustathian party, who had been consecrated 
bishop by Lucifer, and Meletius, bishop of the more 
moderate party. With the laudable purpose of healing 
this schism, it is said that several of the clergy at Antioch, 
who were considered most likely to succeed to a vacancy, 
bound themselves under an oath, that in the event of 
either bishop dying, they would decline the offer of the see, 
if made, and acknowledge the survivor. But on the death 
of Meletius, their plan was frustrated. Either the Asiatics, 
who generally favoured Meletius, refused to submit to the 
authority of Paulinus, because he had been ordained by a 
Western prelate, or the Eustathians who acknowledged 
Paulinus were unwilling on their side to admit Meletians 
into their fold. In any case, the earnest endeavours of 
Gregory of Nazianzum, now President of the Council, to 

1 See ante, Chapter II. 



Cn. Vn.] DUTIES OF A DEACON. 91 

unite the two factions under one prelate were unsuccess- 
ful. 1 The Meletians elected Flavian to be their bishop, 
one of the very priests who had, under oath, renounced 
their pretensions to the see. This appointment of course 
exposed Flavian to the imputation of perjury, but we 
may hope that, like Gregory, he yielded to a pressing 
necessity only, and to a conviction that the dissension 
would have been aggravated and protracted if he had 
obdurately refused. 2 At any rate, as will hereafter ap- 
pear, his conduct, wherever it comes before us, is worthy 
of all admiration, and Chrysostom must have filled the 
office of deacon with happiness under his administration, 
A greater contrast than the initiation of Chrysostom into 
clerical life, and that of a young deacon in modern times, 
can scarcely be imagined. He was in his thirty-seventh 
year, and had supplemented the good liberal education of 
his youth by several years of devotion to close study of 
Scripture, to rigorous mortification of the body, to prayer 
and meditation, and to every means of promoting the 
culture of the soul. After this long and careful training, 
he enters the subordinate ranks of the clergy, not to dis- 
charge, like a modern deacon, duties as laborious and 
often as responsible, as those which pertained to the 
priest, but such light and irresponsible tasks as were 
suitable to men who might be young, and were necessarily 
inexperienced in pastoral work. The deacons were some- 
times called the Levites of the Christian Church. 3 It was 
their office, to take care of the holy table and its furniture, 
to administer the cup to the laity, but not to a priest or a 
bishop, and occasionally to read the Gospel. 4 They were 

1 See preface to his Orat. 43. universal acknowledgment of Flavian 

2 The bishops of Egypt and the was obtained in a.d. 398. 
West generally adhered to Paulinus, 3 So Jerome, Ep. xxvii. 

Sozom. vii. 11, till by the united efforts 4 Nice Coimc. Can. 18. (Hefele, 

of Chrysostom and Theophilus the p. 426.) 



92 LITE AND TIMER OF ST, CHEYSOSTOM. ~Ch. YH 

in most churches permitted to baptize. 1 But their pecu- 
liar duty in the services of the Church was to call the 
attention of the people to every fresh movement, to use a 
musical expression, in the progress of the service. Thus 
at the close of the sermon, the deacon's voice was heard 
crying, -'let the hearers i.e. the second order of catechu- 
mens who were permitted to hear the sermon, but not the 
conclusion of the Eucharistic service and the unbelievers 
depart ! ' 2 Then he bid the remaining orders of the 
catechumens, i.e. the energumens. the corupetentes, and 
the penitents, to pray for one another, and the people also 
to pray for them : ektsikos herjdco/jLzv, ■' let us ardently pray 
for them ' : such was the form. Again, when they were 
dismissed by the command airokusaOs, *' disperse," the 
faithful were invited by the deacon to pray for the whole 
state of Christ's Church. 3 Thus the deacons were the 
sacred criers or heralds of the Church : they • proclaimed 
or bid prayer,' they announced each part as it was un- 
folded in the sacred drama of the Liturgy. The frequent 
recurrence in our own Liturgy without much apparent 
significance, of the form ' Let us pray,' is a remnant of 
these old diaconal invitations. The deacons were not 
permitted to preach except by a special direction of the 
bishop. Their duty in part corresponded to that of our 
churchwardens ; they were to reprove any improper be- 
haviour during divine service, 4 to bring cases of poverty 
and sickness before the notice of the bishop, to distribute 
the alms under his direction, and also to report to him 
grave moral offences. 5 They were essentially, as the name 
implies, ministers to the bishops and priests, and were 
often styled, in symbolical language, 'the bishop's eyes, 3 
or i ears," or ' right hand." The attitude of respect, which 

1 TertulL de Bapt. cxvii. Jer Constat. Apost. lib. ii. :. 57. 

Dial, contr. Lucif. Chrysost. Horn. xxiv. in A :. 
■ Chrysost Horn. ii. in 2 I . Apost. lib. ii. c. 

i )nstit. A - . I Oii. c 10. Cyprian. E| . xlix. 



Cn.m] CHRYSOSTOM AS A DEACON. 93 

they were bound to maintain in church towards bishops 
and priests, was in keeping with the servatorial character 
of their office as a whole. While the priests had their 
chairs ranged on either side of the central chair of the 
bishop in the choir, the deacons stood humbly by, as if 
ready to receive and execute the directions of their supe- 
riors. 1 Even the Roman deacons, who rose rather above 
the natural lowliuess of their office, did not presume to 
sit in the church. 2 

The duties of the diaconate must have brought Chry- 
sostom into constant intercourse with the Christian popu- 
lation of Antioch, and especially with the poorer portion of 
it. The whole population of the cit}- amounted, according 
to Chrysostoni's statement, to 200,000, 3 and the Christians 
to 100,000, 4 of whom 3,000 were indigent, and mainly 
supported by the bounty of the Church. 5 The deacon's 
function of searchiug out and relieving the necessitous by 
distribution of alms must have been peculiarly congenial 
to him. There is no Christian duty on which he more 
constantly and earnestly insists than that of almsgiving, 
not only in order to alleviate the sufferings of poverty, 
but as a means of counteracting the inordinate avarice 
and selfish luxury which were the prevailing vices in the 
higher ranks of society, both in Antioch and Constanti- 
nople. His hold upon the affections of the common 
people, partly no donbt through his sympathy with their 
needs, partly by his bold denunciation of the vices of the 
wealthy, partly by his affectionate and earnest plain-speak- 
ing of Christian truth, was remarkably strong throughout 
his life. As during the secluded leisure of his monastic 
life he had acquired a profound intimacy with Holy 
Scripture, so in the more active labours of his diaconate 

1 Cone. Nie. c. 18. Hefele, p. 426. * Vol. vii. p. 762. 

- Jerome, Epist. 85 ad Evang. 5 Ibid. p. 629. 

3 Chrysost. vol. ii. p. 591. 



94 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. TIL 

he enlarged Ms knowledge of human nature, and stored 
up observations on the character and manners of the 
people among whom he moved; qualifications no less 
important for the formation of a great and effective 
preacher. 

It may not be uninteresting to take a brief glance at 
the character of the city and its inhabitants among whom 
he was destined to labour for the next seventeen years of 
his life. 

Both nature and art combined to make Antioch one 
of the most delectable and luxurious residences in the 
world. The advantages of its situation, in some most 
important respects, could scarcely be exceeded. The river 
Orontes, connecting it with the sea about three miles 
distant, was the throat through which the city was fed 
with merchandise from all parts of the world. The 
wooded shores of the large lake of Antioch some miles 
above the city, supplied the inhabitants with fuel, and its 
waters yielded fish, in great abundance. The hills which 
impended over the town on the southern side, sent down 
numerous and copious streams, whose water, unsurpassed 
in purity, bubbled up through the fountains which stood 
in the court of every house. Northwards extended a 
fertile plain between the Orontes and Mount Coryphaeus. 
The northern winds were occasionally keen and searching, 
but the prevailing western breezes coming up from the 
sea were so delicately soft yet refreshing, that the citizens 
delighted in summer to sleep upon the flat roofs of their 
dwellings. These advantages, however, were in some 
degree balanced by a liability to inundations and earth- 
quakes. Those hill- streams, the blessing and delight of 
the inhabitants in summer, were sometimes swollen in 
winter by excessive rains into torrents of incontrollable 
fury, and caused much damage to the buildings which were 
situated near their course. But far more destructive were 



Cn. VII.: DESCRIPTION OF ANTIOCH. 95 

the earthquakes. More than once, indeed, especially in 
the reigns of Caligula, Claudius, and Trajan, the whole 
city was almost shattered to pieces : but on each occasion, 
through public and private exertions, it arose from its 
ruins in new and, if possible, increased magnificence. 
The peculiar glories of Antioch were its gardens, and 
baths, and colonnaded streets. As in its population, and 
religion, and customs, so also in its architecture, it pre- 
sented, as time went on, a remarkable mixture of Asiatic, 
Greek, and Roman elements. The aim of each Greek 
king and Roman emperor was to leave it more beautiful 
than he had received it from the hands of his predecessor. 
Each marked his reign by the erection of a temple or 
basilica, or bath, or aqueduct, or theatre, or column. The 
church in which Chrysostom officiated, usually called 
' the great Church,' to distinguish it from the smaller and 
older church, called the Church of the Apostles, was com- 
menced by Constantine, and finished by Constantius. In 
the main principles of structure, we may find some parallel 
to it in St. Vitale at Ravenna. It stood in the centre of 
a large court, and was octangular in shape ; chambers, 
some of them subterranean, were clustered round it ; the 
domed roof, of an amazing height, was gilded on the 
inside ; the floor was paved with polished marbles ; the 
walls and columns were adorned with images, and glis- 
tened with precious stones ; every part, indeed, was richly 
embellished with bronze and golden ornament. 1 Among 
the principal wonders of Antioch was the great street 
constructed by Antiochus Epiphanes, nearly four miles in 
length, which traversed the city from east to west ; the 
natural inequalities of the ground were filled up, so that 
the thoroughfare was a perfect level from end to end ; the 
spacious colonnades on either side were paved with red 

1 Euseb. Vita Const, iii. 50. Chry- Vide also Muller cle Antiq. Antioch, 
sost. yoI. iii. p. 160 and vol. xi.p. 78. p. 103. 



96 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. TIL 

granite. From the centre of this magnificent street, 
where stood a statue of Apollo, another street, similar in 
character, but much shorter, was drawn at right angles, 
leading northwards in the direction of the Orontes. Many 
of the other streets were also colonnaded, so that the 
inhabitants, as they pursued their errands of business or 
pleasure, were sheltered alike from the scorching sun of 
summer, or the rains of winter. Innumerable lanterns at 
night illuminated the main thoroughfares with a brilliancy 
which almost rivalled the light of day, and much of the 
business, as well as the festivity, of the inhabitants was 
carried on by night. 1 

The character of the inhabitants partook of the various 
elements- — Asiatic, Syrian, Greek, Jewish, Roman — which 
composed the whole population. But the impulsive ori- 
ental temperament, subject at times to fits of gloomy 
despondency, and to outbursts of wild ferocity, was un- 
doubtedly the most dominant. When not driven under 
the pressure of excitement to either of these extremes, 
they abandoned themselves very freely to those voluptuous 
recreations for which the character of their city and 
climate afforded every facility and inducement. The bath, 
the circus, the theatre, were the daily amusements of the 
citizen ; the Olympic games (instituted in the time of 
Commodus), which were celebrated in the grove of Daphne, 
and the festivities held at particular seasons in honour of 
different deities, were the greater occasions to which he 
looked forward with all the eagerness of a pleasure-loving 
nature. 

These main characteristics of the people are abun- 
dantly illustrated in detail, as will be seen hereafter in 
the homilies of Chrysostom. He is ever, in them, labour- 

1 This description of Antioch is 'Antiquities of Antioch,' or from the 
mainly collected from Midler's ad- authorities referred to therein, 
mirable and exhaustive work on the 



Ph. VH] LETTER TO A YOUNG WIDOW. 97 

ing with indefatigable industry and earnestness to lift the 
Christians above the frivolity and vices of the rest of the 
population. His opportunities for investigating the con- 
dition of the Christian community were great during his 
diaconate. He did not as yet preach; but by observa- 
tions on life and manners, he laid up copious materials 
for preaching. And he was not idle in the use of his 
pen, for to this period may be assigned the treatise 6 On 
Virginity,' a letter addressed to a young widow ; a book 
on the Martyr Baby las ; and, perhaps, though this cannot 
.certainly be determined, the six books on the Priest- 
hood. 1 

The letter to a young widow must have been written 
soon after the destruction of the Emperor Valens and his 
army by the Goths in a.d. 378, since it contains a re- 
ference to that event as a recent occurrence, 2 yet it must 
have been antecedent to the crushing defeats inflicted on 
them by Theodosius in a.d. 382, because the writer im- 
plies that at the time of composition the Goths were 
overrunning large tracts of the empire with impunity, 
and mocking the helplessness and timidity of the im- 
perial troops. 3 The whole book is penetrated with that 
profound sense of the misery and instability of things 
human, which the corruption of society and recent cala- 
mities of the empire impressed with peculiar force on 
the minds of reflecting persons ; which produced among 
pagans either melancholy or careless indifference, but 
made Christians cling with a more earnest and tenacious 
trust to the hopes and consolations of the Gospel. 

Therasius, the husband of the young widow, had died 
after five years of married life. He is described by 
Chrysostom as having been distinguished in rank, in 
ability, and above all, in virtue ; as having held a high 

1 See Socrates ri. 1, and Mont- 2 Ad vid. jun. c. o. 

faucon's preface to ' De Saeerdotio.' 3 C. 4, 

H 



98 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Oh. VII. 

position in the army, with a reasonable expectation of 
soon becoming a prefect. But these very excellencies 
and brilliant prospects, which seemed to aggravate the 
sense of his loss, ' ought,' Chrysostom observes, c to be 
regarded as sources of consolation. If death were a final 
and total destruction, then, indeed, it would have been 
reasonable to lament the extinction of one, so benevolent, 
so gentle, so humble, prudent, and devout, as her late 
husband. But if death was only the landing of the soul 
in a tranquil haven, only a transition from the worse to 
better, from earth to Heaven, from men to angels and 
archangels, and to Him who is the Lord of angels, then 
there was no place left for tears. It was better that he 
should depart and be with Christ, his true King, serving 
Whom in that other world, he would not be exposed to 
the dangers and animosities which attended the service 
of an earthly monarch. They were, indeed, separated in 
body, but neither length of time nor remoteness of place 
could sunder the friendship of the soul. Endure patiently 
for a little time, and you will behold again the face of 
your desire ; perhaps even now in visions, his figure will 
be permitted to visit you. 1 If it was the loss of the 
prefecture that she specially deplored, let her think from 
what dangerous ambitions her husband had been pre- 
served ; think of the fate of Theodoras, who was tempted 
by his high station to lay a plot against the Emperor, 
and suffered capital punishment for his treason. 2 The 
loftier a man's ambitions in life, the more probable a 
disastrous fall. Look at the tragical fate of the Emperors 
in the course of the past fifty jesirs. Two only, out of 
nine, had died natural deaths ; of the other seven, one had 
been killed by a usurper, 3 one in battle, 4 one by a sedition 

1 C. 3. calls him a Gaul, not, as Chrysostom. 

2 C. 4. Executed in 371 in the a Sicilian. 

reign of Valentinian, Valens, anclGra- 3 Constans by Magnentius. 

tian. Ammian. Marcell. xxix. 1, who 4 Constantine the younger. 



Ch. Vn.] FATE OF EMPEROES. 99 

of his domestic guards, 1 one by the man who had invested 
him with the purple. 2 Julian had fallen in battle in the 
Persian expedition. Yalentinian I. died in a fit of rage, 
and Valens had been burnt, together with his retinue, in 
a house to which the Goths set fire. And of the widows 
of these Emperors, some had perished by poison, others 
had died of despair and broken hearts. Of those who yet 
survived, one was trembling for the safety of an orphan 
son, 3 another had with difficulty obtained permission to 
return from exile. 4 Of the wives of the present Emperors, 
one was racked by constant anxiety on account of the 
youth and inexperience of her husband, 5 the other was 
subject to no less anxiety for her husband's safety, who 
ever since his elevation to the throne had been engaged 
in incessant warfare with the Goths. 6 Human ambition 
was a hard task-mistress, who employed arrogance and 
avarice as her agents ; ' do not, then, mourn that your 
husband has been emancipated from her tyranny.' Most 
of the wisest and noblest characters even of the pagan 
world had resisted the allurements of ambition, — Socrates, 
Epaminondas, Aristides, Diogenes, Crates. Shall the 
Christian then complain, if God takes one away from these 
temptations ? He who cared least about glory, who was 
natural and modest, and unambitious, often acquired most 
glory, whereas he who was most eager and anxious to 
secure it, often obtained nothing but derision and reproach. 
She believed that her husband might have obtained the pre- 

1 Jovian. 4 Doubtful ; possibly first wife of 

2 Gallus Csesar by Constantius. Yalentinian I., divorced from him and 
The two who died natural deaths sent into exile. 

were Constantine the Great and his 5 Constantia, wife of Gratian. 

son Constantius. 6 Flacilla, wife of Theodosius. Com- 

3 The widow of Jovian, whose son pare this mournful list of tragic deaths 
Varronian was deprived of an eye. of sovereigns with the splendid pas- 
See Gibbon, vol. iv. p. 222. sage in Shakespere's Eichard II. : — ■ 

' For Heaven's sake let's sit upon the ground, 
And tell sad stories of the death of kings,' &c. 

h 2 



.1 00 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. VII. 

fecture ; it was a reasonable hope, but there is many a slip 
betwixt the cup and the lip, and he who was king to-day 
was dead to-morrow. Strive, then, to equal and even sur- 
pass your husband in piety and goodness, that you may 
be admitted into the same home, and reunited to him in 
a bond far more lovely and enduring than that of earthly 
wedlock.' 

In the long treatise ' De Virginitate,' Chrysostom 
boldly pronounces his preference for celibacy, but at the 
same time he exposes and denounces the mischievous 
error of Marcionites and Manichseans, who condemned 
marriage altogether as positive sin. ' They were mistaken 
in supposing that abstinence from marriage would pro- 
cure them a high place in Heaven, because, even if it were 
granted that marriage was a positive sin, it must be re- 
membered that not those who abstained from sin, but 
those who did positive good would receive the highest 
rewards ; not one who abstained from calling his brother 
c Raca,' but he who loved his enemies. The celibacy 
of heretics, such as the Manicheeans, was based on the 
false conception that all created matter was evil, and that 
the Creator Himself was an inferior being to the Supreme 
Deity. Hence their celibacy was the work of the devil ; 
they belonged to those mentioned only to be condemned 
in 1 Tim. iv, 1-3 ' as forbidding to marry.' 1 Chastity of 
body was worthless, if the soul within was depraved ; but 
celibacy rightly cultivated to preserve the purity of the 
soul towards God was better than marriage, better as 
Heaven was better than earth, and angels better than 
men. He confronts the common objection, if all men 
embrace celibacy, how would the race be propagated? 
Myriads of angels inhabit Heaven, yet we believe they 
were not propagated by matrimony, and it was only by 
the special provision and will of God, that matrimony 

1 Ch. i,-v. 



(a. VIL] TREATISE OX CELIBACY. 101 

itself produced offspring. Sarah was barren till God 
vouchsafed her Isaac. Marriage was the inferior state 
to conduct us to the higher ; it was to celibacy as the Law 
to the Gospel, it was a crutch to support those who would 
otherwise fall into sin, but to be dispensed with when 
possible. Let those, then, who reproached and derided 
celibacy, put a restraint upon their lips, lest like Miriam, 
or the children who mocked Elisha, they should be 
severely punished for pouring contempt on so holy a 
state.' 1 

We are enabled to understand from this work why the 
best Christianity in the East was so disparaging of the 
married state. The woman had not attained her proper 
place in society. She seems to have been ill-educated, to 
have been kept, especially before marriage, in a state of 
unnatural seclusion, which she broke when she could, and 
was too often treated by the husband like a slave, with 
severity and distrust. This degrading position was partly 
a remnant of the pagan state of society, but partly seems 
natural to oriental manners. Christianity perceived the 
evil, but had not effected much towards a remedy. In- 
stead of endeavouring to elevate, to soften, and refine the 
relation of one sex to the other, it encouraged rather a 
total separation. The treatise now under notice presents 
curious pictures of domestic life, if such it can be called, 
in that age. Matrimonial matches were arranged entirely 
by the parents, the attentions of the suitors were paid to 
the parents, not to the maiden herself. She suffered an 
agony of suspense, while the favourite of yesterday was 
supplanted by the superior charms of some rival of to-day, 
who in his turn was superseded by a third. Sometimes, 
on the yerj eve of marriage, the suitor whom she herself 
preferred was dismissed, and she was finally handed over 
to another whom she disliked. The suitors also, on their 

1 C. 14-22. 



102 LIFE AND TIMES' OF ST. CHEYSOSTOM. [Gh. \TL 

side, were racked by anxiety ; for it was difficult to ascer- 
tain what the real character, personal appearance, and 
manners were of the maiden, who was always kept in the 
strictest seclusion. Then there was often great difficulty 
in getting the dowry paid by the father-in-law, which was 
an annoyance to each of the newly-married pair. 1 

He draws a highly- wr on ght picture, with some canstic 
humour, of the miseries of jealous wives and husbands. 
When a man constantly suspects ' his dearest love,' 2 for 
whom he would willingly sacrifice life itself, what can 
console him P By day and night he has no peace, and is 
irritable to all. Some men have even slain their wives, 
without succeeding in cooling their own jealous rage. 
The trials of the wife were more severe ; her words, her 
very looks and sighs were watched by slaves, and reported 
to her husband, who was too jealous to distinguish false 
tales from the true. The poor woman was reduced to the 
wretched alternative of keeping her own apartment, or, if 
she went out, of rendering an exact account of her pro- 
ceedings. Untold wealth, sumptuous fare, troops of 
servants, distinguished birth, amounted to nothing when 
placed in the balance against such miseries as these. If 
it was the woman who was jealous, she suffered more than 
the man, for she could not keep him at home, or set the 
servants to watch him. If she remonstrated with him, 
she would be told that she had better hold her tongue, 
and keep her suspicions to herself. If the husband insti- 
tuted a suit against the wife, the laws were favourable to 
him, and he could procure her condemnation, and even 
death ; but if she were the petitioner, he would escape. 3 

It was very natural that the woman, who, before 
marriage, was cooped up like a child in the parental 
home, should break out afterwards into extravagance, 
dissipation, and frivolity, if not worse. An inordinate 

1 C. 57 ~ T/)t' /mAiffTa TrdjTW! ay a n tv a tnjr. <•. '■• : C, 52. 



GB.VII.] TRIALS OF MARRIED LIFE. 103 

amount of time and money was bestowed upon dress, 
though, perhaps not more than by the fashionable ladies of 
modern times. Women loaded themselves with orna- 
ments, under the delusion that these added to their 
charms, whereas, Chrysostom observes, if the woman was 
naturally beautiful, the ornaments only concealed and de- 
tracted from her charms. ' If she was ugly, they only set 
off her ugliness by the glaring contrast, and the effect on 
the spectator was ludicrous or painful. But the adorn- 
ment of the virgin who had dedicated herself to God was 
altogether spiritual. She arrayed herself in gentleness, 
modest}', poverty, humility, fasting, vigils. Incorporeal 
graces and incorporeal beauty were the objects of her 
love and contemplation. She treated enemies with such 
perfect courtesy and forbearance, that even the depraved 
were put to shame in her presence. The goodness of the 
soul within overflowed into all her outer actions.' 1 From 
this rapturous description of a highly spiritual kind of 
life, Chrysostom passes, with versatile quickness, to a 
somewhat ludicrous picture of the petty cares of life in 
the world. ' The worldly lady thinks it a fine thing to drive 
round the Forum ; how much better to be independent, 
and use her feet for the purpose for which God gave 
them ! There was always some difficulty about the mules : 
she and her husband wanted them at the same time ; one 
or both were lame or turned out to grass. A quiet and 
modestly-dressed woman needed no carriage and attend- 
ants to protect her in her passage through the streets, but 
might walk through the Forum, free from any annoyance. 
Some might say it was pleasant to be waited on by a 
troop of handmaids ; but, on the contrary, such a charge 
was attended with much anxiety. Not only had the sick 
to be taken care of, but the indolent to be chastised, 
mischief, quarrels, and all kinds of evil doings to be cor- 

1 C. (52. 63. 



104 LIFE AND TBIES OF ST. CHEYSOSTOM. [Ch. XU. 

rected ; and if there happened to be one distinguished by 
personal beauty, jealousy was added to all these other 
cares, lest the husband should be so captivated by her 
charms as to pay more attention to her than to her mis- 
tress. 1 If it was replied to all these objections against 
married life, that Abraham and other saints in the Old 
Testament were all married men, it must be remembered 
that a much higher standard was required under the New 
Dispensation. There were degrees of perfection. When 
Noah, was said to be " perfect in his generation," it meant 
relatively to that age in which he lived, for what is per- 
fect in relation to one era becomes imperfect for another. 
Murder was forbidden by the Old Law, but hatred and 
wrath under the New. A larger effusion of the Holy 
Spirit rendered Christian men fully grown as compared 
with the children of the Old Dispensation. Degrees of 
virtue, impossible then, were attainable now, and as the 
moral standard under the Old Dispensation was lower, so 
the rewards of obedience were less exalted. The Jews 
were encouraged to obedience by the promise of an earthly 
country, Christians by the prospect of Heaven. The Jews 
were deterred from sin by menaces of temporal calamity ; 
the Christian, of eternal punishment. Let us, therefore, 
not spend our care upon m one}'- getting and wives and 
luxurious living*, else how shall we ever become men 
rather than children, and live in the spirit? for when we 
have taken our journey to that other world, the time for 
contest will have past, then those who have not oil in 
their lamps will be unable to borrow it from their neigh- 
bours, or he who has a soiled garment to exchange it for 
another robe. When the Judge's throne has been placed, 
and He is seated upon it, and the fiery stream is " coming 
forth from before Him " (Dan. vii. 10), and the scrutiny of 
past life has begun : though Noah, Daniel, and Job were 

i C. 66 67 



Oh. VII.] DESCRIPTION OF DAPHNE. 105 

to implore an alteration of the sentence passed upon their 
own sons and daughters, their intercession would not 
avail.' 1 

The long treatise i de S. Babyla contra Julianum et 
Gentiles,' presents several interesting subjects for con- 
sideration. In the history of the grove of Daphne we 
have a singular instance of the way in which Grecian 
legend was transplanted into foreign soil. Daphne, the 
daughter of the Grecian river god Ladon, was, accordiug 
to the Syrian version of the myth, overtaken by Apollo 
near Antioch. Here it was, on the banks, not of the 
Peneus, but of the Orontes, that the maiden prayed to 
her mother earth to open her arms and shelter her from 
the pursuit of the amorous god, and that the laurel plant 
sprang out of the spot where she disappeared from the 
eyes of her disappointed lover. The horse of Seleucus 
Nicator, founder of the Syrian monarchy, was said to have 
struck his hoof upon one of the arrows which Apollo had 
dropped in the hurry of his chase ; in consequence of 
which the king dedicated the place to the god. A temple 
was erected in his honour, ample in proportions, and 
sumptuous in its adornments ; the interior walls were 
resplendent with polished marbles, the lofty ceiling was 
of cypress wood. The colossal image of the god, enriched 
with gold and gems, nearly reached the top of the roof; 
the draped portions were of wood, the nude portions of 
marble. The fingers of the deity lightly touched the lyre 
which hung from his shoulders, and in the other hand he 
held a golden dish, as if about to pour a libation on the 
earth, ' and supplicate the venerable mother to give to his 
arms the cold and beauteous Daphne.' 2 The whole grove 
became consecrated to pleasure, under the guise of 
festivity in honour of the god. A more beautiful com- 
bination of delights cannot well be conceived. The grove 

' C. 83. " Gibbon iv. p. 111. 



106 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. VII. 

was situated five miles to the south-west of Antioch, 
among the outskirts of the hills, where many of the 
limpid streams, rushing down towards the valley of the 
Orontes, mingled their waters. The road which con- 
nected the city with this spot was lined on the left hand 
with large gardens and groves, baths, fountains, and 
resting-places; on the right were villas with vineyards 
and rose-gardens irrigated by rivulets. Daphne itself 
was, according to Strabo, 1 eighty stadia, or about ten 
miles, in circumference. It contained everything which 
could gratify and charm the senses ; the deep impene- 
trable shade of cypress trees, the delicious sound and 
coolness of falling waters, the fragrance of aromatic 
shrubs. Such a combination of all that was voluptuous 
told with fatal and enervating effect upon the morals of a 
people who were at all times disposed to an immoderate 
indulgence in luxurious pleasures. Roman troops, and 
even Roman emperors, fell victims to the allurements of 
the spot. 2 The annual celebration of the Olympian games 
instituted by Commodus, which took place here, was espe- 
cially the occasion of shocking excesses of every kind. 
But by the order of Gallus Caesar, an attempt was made to 
introduce a pure association into the spot hitherto con- 
taminated by the licentiousness of pagan rites. The 
remains of Babylas, the Bishop of Antioch, who had suf- 
fered martyrdom in the reign of Decius, were transferred 
from their resting-place in the city to the grove of Daphne. 
The chapel or martyry erected over the bones of the 
Christian saint stood hard by the temple of the pagan 
deity. Here it confronted the Christian visitor, as a 
warning to him not to take part in pagan and licentious 
rites, abhorrent to the faith for which the Bishop had 
died. But the remains of the martyr were not permitted 

1 Strabo, p. 750. erinus and Severus Alexander. — Hero- 

'-' As Varus, Pescennius Niger, Mu- dian ii. 7, 8, v. 2, vi. 7. 



Ch. VII. ] destruction of the temple. 107 

to rest in peace. When Julian visited Antioch, he con- 
sulted the oracle of Apollo at Daphne respecting the issue 
of the expedition which he was about to make into Persia. 
But the oracle was dumb. At length the god yielded to 
the importunity of repeated prayers and sacrifices so far 
as to explain the cause of his silence. He was disturbed 
by the proximity of a dead body : * Break open the 
sepulchres, take up the bones, and remove them hence.' 
The demand was interpreted as referring to the remains 
of Babylas, and the wishes of the crestfallen oracle wore 
complied with. 1 But the insult done to the Christian 
martyr was speedily avenged. Soon after the accom- 
plishment of the impious act, a violent thunderstorm 
broke over the temple, and the lightning consumed both 
the roof of the building and the statue of the deity. At 
the time when Chrysostom wrote, some twenty years after 
the occurrence, the mournful wreck was yet standing; 
but the chapel again contained the relics of the saint 
and martyr, and conferred blessings on the pilgrims who 
resorted thither in crowds. The ruined and deserted 
temple, side by side with the carefully -preserved church 
of the martyr, thronged by devotees, presented a 
striking emblem of the fate of paganism, crumbling, and 
vanishing away before the presence of the new faith, 
blasted by the lightning flash of a mightier force. A 
great portion of the treatise of Chrysostom is occupied by 
an analysis of his old master Libanius's elegy over the 
fate of the stricken shrine of pagan worship. The 
affected and inflated tone of the sophist's composition 
deserves the sarcasm and scorn which his pupil un- 
sparingly pours upon it. 

1 C. 14-16. 



108 LIVES AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Oh. VIII. 



CHAPTER Vni. 

ORDINATION TO THE PRIESTHOOD BY FLAVIAN — INAUGURAL DISCOURSE 
IN THE CATHEDRAL — HOMILIES AGAINST THE ARIANS — ANIMADVER- 
SIONS ON THE CHARIOT RACES. A.D. 386. 

Cheysostom had used the office of a deacon well. The 
lofty tone of Christian piety, the boldness, the ability, the 
command of language manifested in his writings, marked 
him out as eminently qualified for a preacher. His 
treatises, indeed, are distinguished by an eagerness and 
energy of style, which belongs more to the fervour of the 
orator than to the calmness of the writer. No doubt also 
men had not forgotten the talent for speaking which he 
had displayed when he began to practise, nearly twenty 
years before, as a lawyer. The Bishop Flavian ordained 
him a priest in 386, and immediately appointed him to 
be one of the most frequent preachers in the church. 
The bishop of a see like Antioch at that time more 
resembled in his relations to the city, the rector of a large 
town parish, than the bishop of modern times. He 
resided in Antioch, and discharged the duties of a chief 
pastor, assisted by his staff of priests and deacons. Where 
the whole Christian population amounted to not more 
than 100,000 souls, as in Antioch, 1 that division into 
distinct districts, such as were formed in Alexandria, 2 
Rome, and Constantinople, with separate churches, served 

1 Horn, in Matt. vol. vii. p. 762. Constantinople, though the Churches 

2 To the establishment of parochial were numerous, the clergy seem to 
divisions with separate pastors in have been more or less connected with 
Alexandria we have the direct testi- the mother Church. — Vide Bingham, 
moiiy of Ep'iphanius, Hseres. 69. chap. viii. 5, book ix. 

Arian c. 1. In Rome, however, and 



Oh. VIII.] CHRYSOSTOM'S FIRST SERMON. 109 

by members of the central staff in rotation, or by pastors 
especially appropriated to them, does not seem to have 
taken place. Chrysostom officiated and preached in the 
great chnrch, where the bishop also officiated. The less 
learned and less able priests were appointed to the less 
responsible duties of visiting the sick and the poor, and 
administering the sacraments. The vocation of Chrysos- 
tom, however, was especially that of a teacher. It will 
be readily acknowledged how difficult, how delicate an 
office preaching was, in an age when Christianity and 
paganism were still existing side by side, and when the 
opinions of many men were floating in suspense between 
old forms of faith and the new, and were liable to be dis- 
tracted from a firm hold upon the truth by Judaism and 
heresies of every shade. 

Either on the occasion of his ordination, or very soon 
after it, Chrysostom preached an inaugural discourse, in 
the presence of the bishop. It is distinguished by that 
flowery and exaggerated kind of rhetoric which he occa- 
sionally displays in all its native oriental luxuriance, and 
which is due to the school in which he was brought up> 
rather than to the man. On such a public and formal 
occasion, he appears less as the Christian teacher than 
as the scholar of Libanius the Rhetorician. His self- 
disparagement at the opening of his discourse, and his 
flattering encomiums on Flavian and Meletius at the close, 
would to modern, certainly at least to English, ears, 
sound intolerably affected. ~No doubt, however, they were 
acceptable to the taste of his audience at Antioch ; and, 
indeed, the whole discourse contains nothing more over- 
strained or ornate than is to be found in some of the most 
celebrated performances of the great French preachers in 
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 

A few paraphrases will suffice to illustrate the cha- 
racter of his discourse. 



110 LIVES AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. VEX 

' He could scarcely believe what liad befallen him, that 
he, an insignificant and abject youth, 1 should find himself 
elevated to such a height of dignity. The spectacle of so 
vast a multitude hanging in expectation on his lips, quite 
unnerved him, and would have dried up fountains of 
eloquence, had he possessed snch. How, then, could he 
hope that his little trickling stream of words would not 
fail, and that the feeble thoughts which he had put 
together with so much labour, would not vanish from his 
mind ? 

c Wherefore he besought them to pray earnestly that he 
might be inspired with courage to open his mouth boldly 
in this hitherto unattempted work. 2 He wished to offer 
the first-fruits of his speech in praise to God. As the 
tiller of the ground gave of his wheat, grapes, or olives, 
so he would feign make an offering in kind ; he would 
" praise the name of God with a song, and magnify it with 
thanksgiving." But the consciousness of sin made him 
shrink from the task, for as in a wreath, not only must 
the flowers be clean but also the hands which wove it, so 
in sacred hymns not only must the words be holy but also 
the soul of him who composed them. The words of the 
wise man who said " praise is not becoming in the mouth 
of a sinner," 3 sealed up his lips, and when David invited 
all creation, animate and inanimate, visible and invisible, 
to "praise the Lord of Heaven, to praise him in the 
height," he did not include the sinner in the invitation. 
He would rather therefore dilate on the merits of some 
of his fellow-men who were worthier than himself. The 
mention of their Christian virtues would be an indirect 
way, legitimate for a sinner, of paying glory and honour 

1 fieipaKiaicos zuTekrjs kou aireppi/j.- 2 /j.7]54rrco irporepov : this SPems to 

/x4i>os, applied by rather a strong rhe- prove that he had not preached during 

torical licence to a man forty years his diaconate. 
old. 3 Ecclus. xv. 9. 



On. VIII. ] CHRYSOSTOaTS FIEST SERMON. Ill 

to God himself. And to whom should he address his 
praises first but to their bishop, whom he might call the 
teacher of their country, and through their country of the 
world at large ? To enter fully, however, into his manifold 
virtues was to dive into so deep a sea that he feared he 
should lose himself in its profundities. To do justice to 
the task would require an inspired and apostolic tongue. 
He must confine himself to a few points. Although 
reared in the midst of affluence, Flavian had surmounted 
the difficulties which impeded the entrance of a rich man 
into the kingdom of heaven. He had been distinguished 
from youth by perfect temperance and control over the 
bodily appetites, by contempt of luxury and a costty table. 
Though untimely deprived of parental care and exposed 
to the temptations incident to wealth, youth, and good 
birth, yet had he triumphed over them all. He had 
assiduously cultivated his mind, and had put the bridle 
of fasting on his body sufficient to curb excess, without 
impairing its strength and usefulness ; and though he had 
now glided into the haven of a calm old age, yet he did 
not relax the severity of this personal discipline. The 
death of their beloved father Meletius had caused great 
distress and perplexity to the Church, but the appearance 
of his successor had dispersed it, as clouds vanished before 
the sun. When Flavian mounted the episcopal throne, 
Meletius himself seemed to have risen from his tomb/ All 
that can be collected from history respecting Flavian's 
character, confirms and justifies these eulogiums, though 
English taste would prefer them to have been uttered 
after his death than in his actual presence. 

Chrysostom concludes by saying that he had prolonged 
his address beyond the bounds which became his position, 
but the flowery field of praise had tempted him to linger. 
'He would conclude his task by asking their prayers; 
prayers that tbeir common mother the Church might 



112 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Oe. VHL 

remain undisturbed and stedfast, and that the life of 
their father teacher, spiritual shepherd and pilot, might be 
prolonged ; prayers finally that he the preacher, might be 
strengthened to bear the yoke which was laid upon him, 
might in the great day restore safely the deposit which 
his master had committed to his trust, and obtain mercy 
for his sins through the grace and goodness of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, to whom be glory, and power, and worship 
for ever and ever.' 

We now enter on a period of ten years, during which 
Chrysostom constantly resided in Antioch, and was oc- 
cupied in the almost incessant labour of preaching. The 
main bulk of those voluminous works which have been 
preserved to our times belongs to this period ; yet there 
can be no doubt that, numerous as are the extant works, 
they represent but a fraction of the discourses which he 
actually delivered. For we know on his own authority, 
that he frequently preached twice, occasionally oftener in 
the course of a week. 1 

It does not fall within the scope of this essay to de- 
termine how many of the homilies which we possess were 
delivered in each year, or to enter into a critical examina- 
tion of every set. But an attempt will be made to extract 
from them whatever seems to throw light upon the life 
and times of their author, upon events in which he played 
a conspicuous part, or which were of great public im- 
portance ; whatever also illustrates the special condition 
of the Church, — her general practice, her merits and de- 
fects, the dangers and difficulties with which, from dis- 
sension within, or heresy without, she had at this era to 
contend. 

The field of subjects on which the preacher was called 
to exercise his powers was varied and extensive. Chris- 
tianity was imperilled by corruption of morals and cor- 

1 Horn. xi. in Ac. Apost. in fine. 



On. VIII. ] SERMON OX MELETIUS. 113 

ruption of faith. Not the laity only, but the clergy also, 
at least in the great towns, had become deeply infected 
by the prevalent follies and vices of the age. Again, 
between the orthodox Christian and the Pagan, every 
variety of heresy intervened. The Arian, the Manichsean, 
the Marcionite, the Sabellian, the Jew, — all were, so to 
say, touching and fraying the edge of pure Christianity ; 
the danger was, lest they should gradually so wear it away 
as to injure the very vitals of the faith. Such were the 
evils, such the enemies which Chrysostom bent his energies 
courageously, perseveringly to redress or repel. He is 
alternately the champion of a pure morality and of a 
sound faith. 

Among the discourses which belong to the first year of 
his priesthood, falls one delivered in commemoration of 
Bishop Meletius, the predecessor of Flavian.' He had 
died at Constantinople about the end of May a.d. 381, 
and Chrysostom in the commencement of his homily 
remarks, that five years had now elapsed since the bishop 
had taken his journey to the ' Saviour of his longings.' 
The tone of the discourse illustrates a characteristic of 
the times ; a passionate devotion to the memory of de- 
parted saints which was rapidly passing into actual ado- 
ration ; a subject on which more will be said hereafter. 
The shrine which contained the reliques of Meletius was 
placed in the sight of the preacher and the congregation, 
who swarmed round it like bees. 2 When Chrysostom 
looked at the great multitude assembled ' he congratulated 
the holy Meletius on enjoying such honour after his death, 
and he congratulated the people also on the endurance of 
their affection to their late spiritual father. Meletius 
was like the sound root which though invisible proved its 
strength by the vigour of its fruit. When he had re- 
turned from his first banishment the whole Christian popu- 
1 Vol. ii. p. 515. 2 C. 3. 

I 



114 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHEYSOSTOM. [Ch. VIII. 

lation had streamed forth to meet him. Happy those who 
succeeded in clasping his feet, kissing his hand, hearing 
his voice. Others who beheld him only at a distance 
felt that they too had obtained a blessing from the mere 
sight. A kind of spiritual glory emanated from his holy 
person, even as the shadows of St. Peter and St. John 
had healed the sick, on whom they fell.' ' Let us all, rulers 
and ruled, men and women old and young, free men and 
slaves, offer prayer, taking the blessed Meletius into part- 
nership with this our prayer (since he has more confidence 
now in offering prayer, and entertains a warmer affec- 
tion towards us), that our love may be increased and that 
as now we stand beside his shrine, so one day we may all 
be permitted to approach his resting-place in the other 
world.' 

The discourses of Chrysostom against Arians and Jews, 
fall within the first year of his priesthood. 1 They are 
among the finest of his productions, and deserve perusal 
on account of their intrinsic merit no less than of the im- 
portant points of doctrine with which they are concerned. 
Antioch, indeed, may in some sort, be regarded as the 
cradle of Arianism. Paul of Samosata, who was deposed 
from the see of Antioch in a.d. 272, advocated doctrines 
of a Sabellian character, but that sophistical dialectical 
school of thought of which the Arians were the most 
conspicuous representatives, may be traced to him. His 
original calling had been that of a sophist, and he was 
therefore by training more fitted to attack established 
doctrines than to build up a definite system of his own. 
Hence it is not surprising that, though his own tendency 
was to Sabellian opinions, Lucian, his intimate friend and 
fellow-countryman, held doctrines diametrically opposite, 
or what were afterwards called Arian. 2 Lucian, when 

1 See the Mouitura to these Homi- z See Newman's Arians, chap. i. 

lies, vol. i. p. 699. sect. i. 



Ch. YHL] ARIANISM AT ANTIOCH. 115 

presbyter at Antioch, was the teacher of Eusebius, Bishop 
of Nicomedia, of Leon this, the Arian Bishop of Antioch, 
and perhaps also of Arius himself. 1 Aetius, and his pupil 
Eunomius, originators of the most extreme and undis- 
guised form of Arianism, resided in the beginning of 
their career at Antioch. Eunomius, in fact, was the 
founder of a sect which was called Eunomian after 
him ; or sometimes Anomcean, because it denied not 
only equality but even similarity (o/jlolott)?) between 
the Father and the Son in the Holy Trinity. It was 
the most materialistic phase which Arianism developed. 
Mystery was to be eliminated from revelation as much as 
possible, sacramental grace was little recognised, asceti- 
cism disparaged. Adherents of this school seem to have 
existed still in some force at Antioch. A system marked 
by so much of cold intellectual pride was especially repug- 
nant to the fervid and humble faith of Chrysostom. Yet 
in his assaults upon it he was neither precipitate nor 
harsh. In his first homily ' On the incomprehensible 
Nature of God/ he says that having observed several 
persons who were infected by this heresy listening to his 
discourses, he had abstained from attacking their errors, 
wishing to gain a firmer hold upon their interest before 
engaging with them in controversy. But having been 
invited by them to undertake the contest, he could not 
decline it, but would endeavour to conduct it in a spirit 
of gentleness and love, since c the servant of the Lord must 
not strive, but be gentle towards ' all, as well as ' apt to 
teach.' He urges all disputants to remember our Lord's 
answer when He was buffetted, 6 If I have spoken evil, 
bear witness of the evil ; but if well, why smitest thou 
me?' 2 

He dilates on the arrogance of the Anomceans in pre- 

1 Arius, in a letter to Eusebius, ' fellow Lucianist,' Theod. i. 5. 
addresses him as (rvWovKiaviffra, 2 I. c. 6, 7. 

i 2 



116 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. VTTT. 

tending to understand and to define the exact nature of 
God. 'Professing themselves wise they only discovered 
their folly. Imperfect knowledge on so profound a subject 
was an inevitable part of the imperfection of our human 
state. The condition of our present knowledge was this — 
we know many things about God, but we do not know how 
they are or take place. For example, we may know that 
He is everywhere and without beginning or end, but how 
He is thus, we know not. We know that he begat the 
Son, and that the Holy Spirit proceeded from Hiin, but 
how these things can be we are unable to tell. This is 
analogous to our knowledge of many things which are 
called natural. We eat various kinds of food, but how 
they nourish us and are transmuted into the several 
humours of the body we do not understand.' l 

'Again, if the wisest and holiest men have confessed 
themselves incompetent to fathom the purposes and dis- 
pensations of God, how far more inscrutable must his 
essence be ! If David exclaims ' such knowledge is too 
wonderful and excellent for me, I cannot attain unto it ; ' 
and St. Paul, s Oh the depth of the riches and wisdom of 
God, how unsearchable are his judgments, how un- 
traceable his ways ; ' if the very angels do not presume to 
discuss the nature of God, but humbly adore Him with 
veiled faces, crying i Holy, Holy, Holy,' how monstrous is 
the conceit and irreverence of those who curiously in- 
vestigate and pretend to define the exact nature of the 
Godhead.' 2 

He proceeds to dwell upon the littleness and feebleness 
of man, as contrasted with the amazing and boundless 
power of God. The Eunomians maintained that man 
could know the nature of God as much as God Himself 
knew it. c What mad presumption was this ! the Prophets 
exhaust all available metaphors to express the insignifi- 

1 C. 3. 2 I. c. 4. 



Cu. YIIL] HOMILIES AGAINST AEIANS. 117 

cance of man, as compared with God. Men are " dust and 
ashes," " grass," and the " flower of grass," " a vapour," 
" a shadow." Inanimate creation acknowledges the irre- 
sistible supr3inacy of his power ; " if He do but touch 
the hills they shall smoke," " He shaketh the earth out of 
her place, and the pillars thereof tremble" (Job ix. 6).' 
' Seest thou not yon sky, how beautiful it is, how vast, 
spangled with what a choir of stars? Five thousand 
years and more has it stood, yet length of time has left 
no mark of old age upon it : like a youthful vigorous body 
it retains the beauty with which it was endowed at the 
beginning. This beautiful, this vast, this starry, this 
ancient firmament, was made by that God into whose 
nature you curiously pry, was made with as much ease 
as a man might for pastime construct a hovel : " He esta- 
blished the sky like a roof, and stretched it out like a 
tent over the earth " (Isa. xl. 22). The solid, durable 
earth He made, and all the nations of the world, even as 
far as the British isles, are but as a drop in a bucket ; 
and shall man, who is but an infinitessimal part of this 
drop, presume to enquire into the nature of Him who 
made all these forces and whom they obey ? ' ' ' God dwells 
in the light which no man can approach unto. If the 
light which surrounds Him be inaccessible, how much 
more God Himself who is within it ? St. Paul rebukes 
those who presume to question the dispensation of God. 
' Nay but, man, who art thou, that repliest against God ? 
shall the thing formed say unto him that formed it, why 
hast thou made me thus ? ' How much more, then, would 
he have reproved dogmatic assumption respecting the 
nature of the great Dispenser ? 2 The declaration of St. 
John that no man had seen God at any time might 
appear at variance with the descriptions in the prophets 
of visions of the Deity. As : "I saw the Lord sitting on 

1 II. c. 3, 4. 2 II. c. 4, 5 ; III. 3, 4, 5, 6. 



118 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM, [Ch. VEX 

his throne high and lifted up " (Isa. vi. 1). "I saw the 
Lord standing above the altar " (Amos ix. 1). "I beheld 
till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days 
did sit whose garment was white as snow," &e. (Dan. 
vii. 9). But the very variety of forms under which God 
is said to have appeared, proves that these manifestations 
were merely condescensions to the weakness of human 
nature, which requires something that the eye can see and 
the ear can hear. They were only manifestations of the 
Deity adapted to man's capacity ; not the Divine Nature 
itself which is simple, incomposite, devoid of shape. So, 
also, when it is said of God the Son that He is " in the 
bosom of the Father," when He is described as standing, 
or sitting on the right hand of God, these expressions 
must not be interpreted in too material a sense ; they are 
expressions accommodated to our understandings, to con- 
vey an idea of such an intimate union and equality 
between the two Persons as is in itself incomprehensible.' l 
And this leads him on to consider the second error of 
the Arians — their denial of absolute equality between the 
three Persons in the Godhead. His arguments are based, 
as usual, entirely on an appeal to Holy Scripture. He 
makes a skilful selection and combination of texts to 
prove his point, that the titles ' God ' and i Lord ' are 
common to the first two Persons in the Trinity — the 
names Father and Son being added merely to distinguish 
the Personality. Had the Father alone been God, then it 
would have been superfluous to add the name Father at 
all : c there is one God ' would have been sufficient. But, 
as it was, the titles 'God' and 'Lord' were applied to 
both Persons to prove their equality in respect of God- 
head. That the appellation of Lord no way indicated 
inferiority was plain, because it was frequently applied to 
the Father. ' The Lord our God is one Lord,' Exod. 

1 IV. 4. 



CH.Vni.] HOMILIES AGAINST ARIANS. 119 

xx. 2. ' Great is our Lord and great is his power,' Psa. 
cxlvii. 5. On the other hand, Christ is frequently entitled 
God, e.g. ' Immanuel — God with us.' ' Christ according to 
the flesh, who is over all, God blessed for ever.' In some 
instances the Father and the Son are both called Lord, or 
both God in the same passage ; as, for example, * The 
Lord said unto my Lord '....' thy throne, God (the 
Son), is for ever and ever' .... 'wherefore God (the 
Father), even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil 
of gladness,' &C. 1 

1 The reason why Christ sometimes acted and spoke in a 
manner which implied human infirmity, and inferiority to 
the Father, was twofold. First, that men might be con- 
vinced that He did really, substantially exist in the truth 
of our human nature ; that He was not a mere phantom 
— the error of Marcion, Manes, and Valentinus — an error 
which would have been still more prevalent had He not 
so clearly manifested the reality of his humanity. On 
the other hand, He was reserved and cautious in declar- 
ing the highest mystery — his divine union and equality 
with the Father — out of condescension to the weakness of 
man's intellect, which recoiled from the more recondite 
mysteries. When He told them that " Abraham rejoiced 
to see his day," that "before Abraham was He was," " that 
the bread from heaven was his flesh, which He would give 
for the life of the world," that " hereafter they should see 
the Son of Man coming in the clouds," they were in- 
variably offended. But, on the contrary, He was chiefly 
accepted when He spoke words implying more humiliation 
— for example, " I can of my own self do nothing, but as 
my Father taught me, even so I speak." " As He spake 
these words," we are told, " many believed on Him." 2 

' Two other reasons might be assigned for this language 
of self-abasement. One was, that He came to teach us 

1 V. 2, 3. 2 VII. c. 3. 1. 



120 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. Vni. 

humility, — " learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of 
heart." He " came not to be ministered unto but to 
minister." He who bids others be lowly must first and 
pre-eminently be lowly Himself. Therefore He performed 
such acts as washing his disciples' feet ; and the In- 
carnation itself was no sign, as the Arian maintained, 
of inferiority, but only the highest expression of that 
great principle of self-sacrificing love which He came to 
teach. Lastly, by such language He directs our minds 
to the apprehension of a clear distinction between the 
Persons in the Godhead. If his sayings about Himself 
had all resembled such as " I and my Father are one," the 
Sabellian error of confounding the Persons would have 
become yet more prevalent than it was. Thus, we find 
throughout our Lord's life, in his acts and language, a 
careful mixture and variation of character in order to 
present the two elements — the human and divine — in 
equal proportions. He predicts his own sufferings and 
death, yet quickly afterwards He prays the Father that 
He might be, if possible, spared undergoing them. In 
the first act is pure divinity ; in the second humanity 
shrinking from that pain which is abhorrent to human 
nature.' 1 

This very fact, however, of our Lord's praying, was 
laid hold of by the Arians to prove the inferiority of his 
nature. This argument Chrysostom meets in Homi- 
lies IX. and X. The raising of Lazarus had been read 
in the gospel for the day. 6 1 perceive,' he says, ' that 
many of the Jews and heretics will find an excuse in the 
prayer offered by Christ before performing this miracle, to 
impugn his power, and say He could not have done it 
without the Father's assistance.' But this fell to the 
ground, because on most other occasions our Lord 
wrought his miracles without any prayer at all. To the 

1 VII. c. 6, 7. 



Cii.mil: homilies against arians. 121 

dead maiden lie simply said, ' Talitha Cumi,' and she 
arose ; the woman with an issue of blood was healed 
without any word or touch from Him. In the case of 
Lazarus He prayed, as He Himself declared, for the sake 
of the people, that they might perceive that God heard 
his prayers — that there was a perfect unanimity between 
the Father and the Son. Martha, in fact, had asked for 
a prayer, * I know whatsoever thou sha.lt ask of God God 
will give it thee,' therefore He prayed; just as when the 
centurion said, ' Speak the word only,' He spake the word 
and the servant was healed. If He had needed help He 
would have invoked it before all his miracles. In fact 
there was no kind of sovereign power which He hesitated 
to exercise. ' Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven 
thee;' .... 'the Son of Man hath power on earth to 
forgive sins ; ' — to an evil spirit, ' I charge thee come out 
of him, and enter no more into him;' ... 'to them of 
old it was said, Thou shalt not kill, but J say, whosoever is 
angry with his brother without a cause,' &c. He repre- 
sents Himself as saying on the final day, ' Come, ye 
blessed ; ' or ' Depart, ye cursed.' Thus He claims authority 
to absolve, to judge, to legislate. 

Homilies XL and XII. against the Anomoeans were deli- 
vered some ten years later at Constantinople, but as they 
contain no special references to the events of that time the 
continuity of this subject maybe maintained by extracting 
from them the argument there employed to prove the 
equality of the Son with the Father. It is based on the pas- 
sage, ' My Father worketh hitherto, and I work ' (St. John 
v. 1 7) ; by which our Saviour justified Himself from the 
accusation of breaking the Sabbath when He healed the 
paralytic. The words ' My Father worketh,' Chrysostom 
observes, refer to the daily operations of God's providence, 
by which He sustains in being those things which He 
commanded into existence. 



122 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ob. VOL 

This upholding energy, our Lord declares, is active at all 
times and on all days alike ; and if it were not, the fabric 
of the universe would fall to pieces. He claims a similar 
right to providential rule, which implies equality with the 
Father. ' My Father worketh, and I work.' If the Son 
had been inferior, such a method of justifying Himself 
would only have added force to the charges of his enemies. 
If a subject of the Emperor were to put on the imperial 
diadem and purple, it would be no excuse to say that he 
wore them because the Emperor wore them — ' the Emperor 
wears them and I wear them ; ' — on the contrary, it would 
augment the offensiveness of his presumption and arro- 
gance. If Christ were not equal with the Father, it was 
the height of presumption to use those words, c My Father 
worketh hitherto, and I work. 5 

In dealing with such lengthy homilies, it has been 
impossible to do more than give specimens in a very 
condensed form of the main lines of argument which Chry- 
sostom adopts. They vary greatly in value ; but two points 
cannot fail to arrest the notice of anyone who reads 
these homilies through. First, the profound acquaintance 
of their author with Holy Scripture ; extending apparently 
with equal force to every part of the sacred volume. Old 
and New Testament and Apocrypha, are almost equally 
employed for argument, illustration, adornment : he is at 
home everywhere. Secondly, upon Scripture all his argu- 
ments are based: in none of his controversial homilies 
does Chrysostom take his stand upon the platform of 
existing tradition, or rely on the authority of the Church 
alone ; ' to the law and to the testimony ' is always the 
way with him. And this was a test at that time uni- 
versally accepted. The dispute with the most rationalistic 
and critical Arians seems never to have turned on the 
authority, but only on the interpretation of Scripture. 
Scripture is appealed to as the supreme court for trying 



Oh. vm.] CONGREGATION REBUKED. 123 

all their differences ; the only question was, as to the exact 
meaning of its decisions. 

Again, we cannot fail to be struck by the ease and 
rapidity with which he glances off from the most contro- 
versial and theological parts of his discourse to practical 
reproof and exhortation. Nothing provoked him more 
than to see the bulk of that large concourse of people 
who had been listening with profound attention to his 
address leave the church just as the celebration of the 
Eucharist was about to commence. ' Deeply do I groan 
to perceive that when your fellow-servant is speaking, 
great is your earnestness, strained your attention, you 
crowd one upon another, and stay till the very end, but 
that when Christ is about to appear in the holy mysteries 
the church is empty and deserted. ... If my words had 
been laid up in your hearts they would have kept you here, 
and brought you to the celebration of these most solemn 
mysteries with greater piety ; but as it is, my speech 
seems as fruitless as the performance of a lute-player, for 
as soon as I have finished you depart. Away with the 
frigid excuse of many, I can say prayers at home, but I 
cannot at home hear homilies and doctrine. Thou 
deceivest thyself, man ; you may, indeed, pray at home, 
but it is impossible to pray in the same manner as at 
church, where there is so large an assembly of your spi- 
ritual fathers, and the cry of the worshippers is sent up 
with one accord ; where there is unanimity and concert in 
prayer ; and where the priests preside, that the weaker 
supplications of the multitude being supported by theirs, 
which are more powerful, may ascend together with these 
to heaven. First prayer, then discourse ; so say the 
Apostles. 'But we will give ourselves to prayer and to 
the ministry of the word.' 1 

Again, as frequently in other discourses, he reproves the 

1 III. c. 6. 



124 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. VIH. 

congregation for testifying their admiration of his words 
by applause. ' You praise what I have said, you receive 
my exhortation with tumults of applause : but show your 
approbation by obedience : that is the praise which I seek, 
the applause which comes through deeds.' l 

His hearers, in fact, were so closely packed, and so 
much absorbed in listening to his discourse, that pick- 
pockets often practised on them with some success. 
Chrysostom advises them, therefore, to bring no money 
or ornaments about their persons to church. It was a 
device of the devil, who hoped by means of this annoy- 
ance to chill their zeal in attending the services, just as 
he stripped Job of everything, not merely to make him 
poor but to rob him if possible of his piety. 2 

Bat the most inveterate enemy with which Chrysostom 
had to contend was the circus. Against this he declaims 
with all the vehemence of Evangelical invectives against 
horse-racing in modern times. The indomitable passion 
for the chariot-races, and the silly eagerness displayed 
about them by the inhabitants of Rome, Constantinople, 
and Antioch, are among the most remarkable symptoms 
of the debased and vitiated character of society, under the 
later Empire. The whole populace was divided into factions 
distinguished by the different colours adopted by the cha- 
rioteers, of which green and blue were the two chief 
favourites. The animosity, the sanguinary tumults, the 
superstitions, 3 folly, violence of every kind, which were 
mixed up with these popular amusements, well deserved 
the unsparing severity with which they were lashed by 
the great preacher. 

A few specimens shall be collected here from other 

1 III. c. 6, in fine. sons, and according as one or other was 

2 IV. in fine. victorious a plentiful harvest or pros- 

3 The colours represented the sea- perous navigation was indicated. 



In. Yin.] CENSURE OX CHARIOT RACES. 125 

homilies, as well as from those immediately under con- 
sideration. 

* Again we have the horse-races ; again onr assembly is 
thinned. But he cared not so much for the loss of the 
leaves, the scum in fact, of the congregation, provided 
that the sound and genuine portion of it remained. 1 
Sometimes, however, the church was deserted by those of 
whom he had expected more fidelity. He felt disheartened, 
like a sower who had scattered good seed plentifully, but 
with no adequate result. Gladly and eagerly would he 
continue his exertions could he see any fruit of his labours ; 
but when, forgetful of all his exhortations and warnings, 
and solemn remindings of the terrible doom, the un- 
quenchable fire, the undying worm, they again abandoned 
themselves to the diabolical exhibitions of the race-course, 
with what heart could he return to the unthankful task ? 
They manifested, indeed, by applause, the pleasure with 
which they heard his words, and then they hurried off to 
the circus, and, sitting side by side with Jew or Pagan, 
they applauded, with a kind of frenzied eagerness, the 
efforts of the several charioteers ; they rushed tumul- 
tously along, jostling one another, and shouting, " that 
horse didn't run fairly," " that was tripped up, and fell," 
and the like. 2 Various excuses were pleaded for absence 
from church — the exigencies of business, poverty, ill 
health, lameness ; but these impediments never prevented 
attendance at the Hippodrome. In the church the chief 
places even were not always all occupied, but there old 
and young, rich and poor, crowded every available space 
for standing or sitting ; pushing, and squeezing, and 
trampling on one another's feet, while the sun poured 
down on their heads : yet they appeared thoroughly to 
enjoy themselves, in spite of all these discomforts ; while 

1 VII. contra Anoin. c. i. 2 Dp Laz. vii. c. 1. 



126 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. YIU. 

in the church, the length of the sermon, or the heat, or the 
crowd were perpetual subjects of complaint.' * 

Such are a few illustrations of one, but perhaps the 
most notable, form among many in which the impulsive- 
ness and frivolity of the people of Antioch were displayed. 
6 The building which the preacher had so laboriously and 
industriously reared in the hearts of his disciples was 
thus cruelly dashed down and levelled to the very ground 
by a few hours of dissolving pleasure and iniquitous 
frivolity.' 2 

Truly, indeed, might the lamentation of the prophet 
over the evanescent piety of Ephraim and Judah have 
been applied to these people : s Your goodness is as a 
morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away ' (Hos. 
vi. 4). 

1 De Anna iv. 1. 2 De Laz. vii. c. 1. 



127 



CHAPTER IX. 

HOMILIES AGAINST PAGANS AND JEWS — CONDITION OF THE JEWS IN 

ANTIOCH JUDAISING CHRISTIANS — HOMILIES ON CHRISTMAS DAY AND 

NEW TEAR'S DAY — CENSURE OF PAGAN SUPERSTITIONS. A.D. 386, 387. 

In dealing with the Arians, the contest mainly turned, as 
has been pointed out in the previous chapter, on the inter- 
pretation of Scripture, but in doing battle with Pagans 
and Jews, with the former especially, Chrysostom had of 
course to take up a different attitude. The method which 
he adopts towards the Jew is to demonstrate the fulfil- 
ment of Old Testament prophecy in the person and work 
of Jesus Christ, and to insist on the consequent abroga- 
tion of the Jewish dispensation. The ground on which 
he mainly relies against the Pagan is the miraculous 
establishment and progress of Christianity in the face of 
unprecedented opposition, as an evidence of its divine 
origin. 

The treatise addressed to Jews and Gentiles combined, 
exhibits a powerful application of both these methods. 1 
' He would first of all enter the lists against the Pagan. 
And here caution was requisite. He would not say, when 
the Pagan asked how the divinity of Christ was to be 
proved, that Christ created the world, raised the dead, 
healed the sick, expelled demons, promised a resurrection 
and a heavenly kingdom, because these were the very 

1 It is a treatise, because too long promise we find redeemed in the homi- 

for a homily, though mutilated of its lies against the Jews, and these homi- 

proper conclusion. It must belong to lies, again, can be proved, by internal 

the first two years of his priesthood, evidence, to have been delivered not 

because it promises a more ample later than a.d. 387. See Montfaucon's 

discussion of several points, which ' Monitum,' vol. i. pp. 811 and 839. 



128 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. IX. 

questions upon which thej joined issue. But he would 
start from a ground which even the Pagan would accept ; 
no one would venture to deny that the Christian religion 
was founded by Jesus Christ, and from this simple fact 
he would undertake to prove that Christ could be no 
less than God. No mere man could, in so short a time, 
with such feeble instruments, and in the face of such 
opposition arising from inveterate custom and forms of 
faith, have subdued so many and such various races of 
mankind. 1 How contrary to the common course of events, 
that He who was despised, weak, and put to an igno- 
minious death, should now be honoured and adored in all 
regions of the earth ! Emperors who have made laws, 
altered the constitution of states, who have ruled nations 
by their nod, in whose hands was the power of life and 
death, pass away, their images are in time destroyed, their 
actions forgotten, their adherents despised, their very 
names buried in oblivion : — present grandeur is succeeded 
by nothingness. In the case of Jesus Christ, all is re- 
versed. During his lifetime, all seemed failure and degra- 
dation, but a career of glory and triumph succeeded his 
death. 2 Before his death Judas betrayed Him, St. Peter 
denied Him ; after his death, St. Peter and the rest of 
the Apostles traversed the world to bear witness to his 
truth, and thousands of people have died, rather than 
utter what the chief of the Apostles once uttered from 
fear of a maid servant's taunts. "His rest shall be 
glorious:" — this was true, not only of the Master but also 
of his disciples. In that most royal city of Rome 
monarchs, prefects, generals, flocked to the sepulchres of 
the fisherman and the tent-maker ; and in Constantinople 
they who wore the diadem were content to lay their bones 

1 C. 1. remarks on Christianity : ' Table Talk 

2 See a singular parallel to this and Opinions of Napoleon I.' 
thought in the Emperor Napoleon I.'s 



Ch. IX.] FCttYEK OF THE CHURCH. 129 

in the porch of the Apostle's Church, and to become as it 
were the door-keepers of humble fishermen. 1 Christ had 
made the most ignominious death, and the instrument of 
it, glorious. It was written, " cursed is he that hangeth on 
a tree," yet the cross had become the object of desire 
and love ; it was more honourable than the whole world, 
for the imperial crown itself was not such an ornament to 
the head : princes and subjects, men and women, bond 
and free, all delighted to wear it imprinted on the brow. 
It was conspicuous on the Holy Table, and in the ceremony 
of ordaining priests ; in houses, in market-places, by the 
wayside, and on mountain sides, on couches and on 
garments, on ships, on drinking vessels, in mural decora- 
tions, the cross was depicted. Whence all this extra- 
ordinary honour to a piece of wood, unless the power of 
Him who died upon it was divine ? ' 2 

Christ had declared that the gates of hell should not 
prevail against his Rock-founded Church. How far had 
this prediction been verified? In a short space of time 
Christianity had abolished ancestral customs, plucked up 
deeply-rooted habits, overturned altars and temples, 
caused unclean rites and festivals to vanish away. 
Christian altars had been erected in Italy, in Persia, in 
Scythia, in Africa. ' What say I ? even the British Isles, 
which lie outside the boundaries of our world and our 
sea, in the midst of the ocean itself, have experienced the 
power of the Word, for even there churches and altars 
have been set up.' Thus the world had been, so to say, 
cleared of thorns, and purified to receive the seed of godli- 
ness. What a proof of superhuman power ! The progress 
of the Church had been encountered by customs which 
were not only venerated but pleasant ; yet these tradi- 
tions, handed down through long lines of ancestors, were 
abandoned for a religion far more severe and laborious, a 

1 C. 9. 2 Ibid. 

K 



1 30 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. IX. 

religion which substituted fasting for enjoyment, poverty 
for money-getting, temperance for lasciviousness, meek- 
ness for wrath, benevolence for ill-will. Men who had 
long been enervated by luxury, and accustomed to the 
broad way, had been converted into the narrow rugged 
path, not by tens or twenties, but by multitudes under 
the whole heaven. By whose agency had these mighty 
results been wrought ? By a few unlearned obscure men, 
without illustrious ancestors, without money, without 
eloquence. 1 And all this in the teeth of opposition of the 
most varied kind. For where the new doctrine penetrated 
it excited divisions and strife ; children were set at 
variance with parents, brother with brother, husband with 
wife, master with servant. Yet, in spite of persecution 
and disruption of social ties, the new faith grew and 
nourished. How could such unprecedented marvels have 
come to pass but through the divine power, and in 
obedience to that Word of God which is creative of actual 
results? Just as, when He said, c Let the earth bring 
forth grass ' the wilderness became a garden, so when the 
expression of his purpose had gone forth, c I will build 
my Church,' straightway the process began, and though 
tyrants and people, sophists and orators, custom and reli- 
gion, had been arrayed against it, yet the Word going 
forth like fire, consumed the thorns, and scattered the 
good seed over the purified soil. 2 

In attempting to convince the Jews of the divinity of 
Jesus Christ by proving the exact fulfilment of Old Tes- 
tament prophecy in his person and work, Chrysostom 
displays that intimate familiarity with every part of 
Scripture which is his eminent characteristic. 

The passages are, on the whole, most judiciously 
selected ; some corresponding passage from the New 
Testament being placed, if possible, against each, with 

» C. 12. 2 C. 13. 



Ch. IX.] HOMILIES AGAINST JEWS. 131 

a careful attention even to verbal parallelism. For 
instance, against the passage in Isaiah, ' The spirit of 
the Lord shall rest upon him,' he places the verse from 
St. John i. 32, 'I beheld the spirit descending like a 
dove, and it abode upon him.' l He refers each event in 
Christ's life, His Incarnation, His rejection by the Jews, 
His betrayal, crucifixion, burial, resurrection, the descent 
of the Holy Ghost, and the beginning of the Apostolic 
labours to some corresponding prediction. 2 He sometimes, 
however, falls into the error, less common in him than in 
other patristic interpreters, of seeing direct references to 
the Messiah and the Messianic kingdom, to the almost 
total exclusion of any other meaning. For instance, such 
passages as c Their sound is gone out into all lands,' 
' That thou mayest make princes in all lands,' are cited as 
if exclusively predictive of the propagation of Christianity. 
In such words as, ' The virgins that be her fellows shall 
bear her company,' he sees a distinct foreshadowing of 
the honour to be paid to virginity under Christianity. 3 
In other passages, again, he is misled by ignorance of 
the Hebrew, and a too literal adherence to the Septuagint 
translation. In the passage, ' I will make thy officers 
peace,' thine ' exactors ' being rendered in the Septuagint 
bishops or overseers, he extracts from this word a direct 
reference to the Christian priesthood. 4 ' He shall descend 
like rain into a fleece of wool ' is interpreted as significant 
of the extreme secrecy of Christ's birth, and the noise- 
less gentleness with which his kingdom was founded. 5 
Whereas the strict translation being ' like rain upon new- 
mown grass,' it is rather illustrative of the fruitful results 
of Christ's advent, if indeed, a Messianic reference is to 
be admitted at all. 6 

Such occasional defects, however, will not prevent us 

1 C. 2. * C. 2-5. 3 C. 6. 4 C. 7. 5 C 3. 

6 See Perowne, vol. i. in loco. Ps. lxxii. 6, and Delitzsch in Isai. lx. 1 7. 

k 2 



132 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. IX. 

from according the praise due to the great skill with 
which, on the whole, he has worked out this method of 
argument, and the noble vindication of Christianity in 
this treatise has seldom if ever been surpassed by Chry- 
sostom elsewhere. The several parts of his argument are 
unfolded in orderly procession, and expressed with an 
eloquence at once luminous and earnest, and which, 
though at times copious and ornate, does not degenerate 
into the mere redundancy, still less into the affectations 
and flowery artifices of rhetoric ; he is always real and 
earnest, he is sometimes sublime. 

Closely connected with this treatise in subject, and not 
far distant in time of composition, are the Homilies 
directed against Jews and Judaising Christians. The 
Jews, ever since the time of Antiochus the Great, were a 
considerable body in Antioch, and over the Christian 
population exerted a seriously pernicious influence. Their 
position, indeed, in the Empire at large, had been in- 
creasingly favourable from the reign of Hadrian to Con- 
stantine. Though they were not permitted to approach 
Jerusalem, yet the worship in their synagogues was freely 
tolerated; they were permitted to circumcise their own 
children though not the children of proselytes ; and their 
religious organisation in the Empire was held together 
under the sway of the Patriarch of Tiberias. 1 After the 
recognition of Christianity by the Empire, the Jews, as 
a natural consequence, were less favourably treated. The 
statutes of Constantine and Constantius were severe. 
Those Jews who attempted the life of a Christian were to 
be burned. No Christians were to become Jews, under 
pain of punishment. Jews were forbidden to marry 
Christian women or to possess Christian slaves. The 
national character of the Jew seems to have deteriorated, 
as the race became more widely dispersed, and as their 

1 Milman's ' History of the Jews,' vol. ii. book xix. 



Ch. IX.] CHARACTER OF THE JEWS. 133 

wealth and importance increased. They were no longer 
indeed so morosely and snllenly prond as when they 
gloried in the possession of a holy city and distinct re- 
ligious ordinances and a geographical position which 
isolated them from the rest of mankind, but neither were 
their faith or morals so pure. Self-indulgence, sensualism, 
and low cunning, corrupted their life, a superstitious and 
material cast of thought depraved their faith. Their 
habits harmonised too well with that propensity to 
luxury and licentiousness which was the besetting vice of 
the people of Antioch ; their materialism worked hand in 
hand with the prevailing Arianism, if, indeed, Arianism 
may not be regarded as in some sort its product. Cer- 
tainly, whenever popular insurrections caused by religious 
dissensions occurred either in Antioch or in Alexandria^ 
the Jews ranged themselves on the Arian side, as if, 
though not identical in faith, the spirit and character of 
the Arian sect, were the most congenial to their own, 1 
among the conflicting parties. 

Allowing for some exaggerations in the preacher, car- 
ried away by the impulse of the moment, the invectives 
of Chrysostom must be permitted to prove that the Jewish 
residents in Antioch were of a low and vicious order. 
They seem to have been regarded by the common people 
with a mixture of dislike and awe ; the age was super- 
stitious, and the Jews availed themselves of superstitious 
terrors to make a livelihood, especially through a kind of 
quackery in medicine. Their quarters are denominated 
by Chrysostom as dens of robbers and habitations of 
demons. 2 ' A whole day would not suffice to tell the tale 
of their extortions, their thefts, their deceptions, their 
base methods of traffic, such as the sale of amulets and 



1 Basnage's 'Hist, des Juifs/vi. 41. 2 V. in fine ; robbers may possibly 

Newman's ' Arians,' ch.. i. sect. i. be used in a figurative sense. 



134 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. IX. 

charms. 1 Their priests were no better than counterfeits, 
because they had not gone through all the elaborate rites 
of consecration. They had no sacred ephod, no Urim and 
Thummim, no altar, no sacrifice, no prophecy.' 

' The Festival of Trumpets was a scene of great de- 
bauchery, more iniquitous than the proceedings in the 
theatre. Any catechumen who was detected attending 
that festival was to be excluded from the porch of the 
church ; any communicant so detected was to be denied 
access to the Holy Table. The booths erected at the Feast 
of Tabernacles were like taverns, crowded with flute- 
players and ill-conditioned women. The synagogues were 
frequented by the most abandoned characters of both 
sexes, and dancers, actors, and charioteers were largely 
drawn from the Jewish population. In spite of this, 
many Christians were seduced to attend the Jewish 
festivals and fasts, and even to swear Jewish oaths in the 
synagogues, under the superstitious impression that such 
were more solemn and binding than any Christian forms. 
He had himself, only three days ago, rescued a woman 
being dragged off, against her will, to take an oath of 
this kind, by a man who professed himself a Christian.' 
On stopping to rebuke him in the sternest language, 
Chrysostom was shocked to learn that the practice was 
extremely common among Christians. He passionately 
exhorts the faithful to reclaim their deluded brethren 
from these pernicious ways : ( If twelve Apostles had con- 
verted the larger part of the world, it would be a shame 
that the Christians, who were the majority in the popu- 
lation of Antioch, should fail to allay the plague of 
Judaism. What treason ! what inconsistency, that they, 

1 I. c. 7. They seem early to have to obtain the abrogation of perse- 
claimed medical skill. When Simon cuting edicts, he won the favour of the 
Ben Jochai went to Eome as ambas- Emperor by curing his sick daughter, 
sador, in the reign of Antoninus Pius, — Milman, ii. 443. 



Ch. IX.] JUDAISING CHRISTIANS. 135 

who worshipped the Crucified One, should associate with 
the race which crucified Him.' l The synagogue ought 
not to be an object of reverence because it contained the 
Books of the Law and the Prophets, but rather of abhor- 
rence, because those who possessed the Prophets refused 
to recognise Him of whom their writings spoke. Was the 
temple of Serapis holy because it contained the Septua- 
gint, deposited there by Ptolemy Philadel pirns? 2 

Christians seem to have attended Jewish services much 
in that spirit of curiosity with which Protestants some- 
times go to Roman Catholic churches, to be entertained 
by music, incense, and a grand ritual. They maintained 
that the effect was solemnising ; but, observes Chrysostom, 
the value of the offering to God depends not on the nature 
of the offering, but on the heart of the offerers. The 
worshippers sanctify the temple, not the temple the 
worshippers. You would not touch or address the murderer 
of your own son, and will you court the society of those 
who slew the Son of God ? 3 Let them consider that 
cry uttered by the deacon from time to time in the cele- 
bration of the holy mysteries, c discern one another.' 4 So 
let them do. ' If you discern anyone Judaising, hold him 
fast and expose him, that you may not yourself parti- 
cipate in the danger.' 

* In military camps, if any soldier be detected sympa- 
thising with the barbarian or the Persian, not only does 
he himself run a risk of his life, but also any of his com- 
rades who were conscious of his defection, but did not 
represent it to the general. Since, then, you are the 
army of Christ, search diligently whether any stranger 

1 II. 3 ; rii. in initio ; i. c. 3, 4. * ziriyivwoKeTe b.XXi]\ovs. I. 4. This 

2 I. c. 6. admonition ' discern one another' was 
8 I. c. 7. So the idle youth of nttered just at the close of the Missa 

Home turned for amusement into the Catechumenorum, when all but the 
Synagogue. Horace, Sat. ix. 1. 69. baptized had to depart. 



136 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Cn. IX. 

has intruded into your camp, and expose him, not that 
we may put him to death, but that we may punish him, 
deliver him from his error and impiety, and render him 
wholly our own ; but if you willingly conceal him, be well 
assured that you will sustain the same punishment with 
nim.' This homily is concluded by a solemn adjura- 
tion : ' In the words of Moses, T call Heaven and earth 
to record against you this day, that if any of you now 
present or absent, attend the Feast of Trumpets, or enter 
a synagogue, or observe a fast, or a sabbath, or any 
Jewish rite whatever, I am guiltless of your blood. These 
discourses will rise up for both of us in the great day of 
our Lord : if you shall have obeyed them, they will give 
you confidence ; but if otherwise, they will stand as severe 
accusers against you.' Therefore he implored them to 
institute the most rigorous search after the Judaising 
brethren. ' When their mother the Church had lost a child, 
it was criminal to conceal either the captor or the cap- 
tured ; let the men seek out the men, the women the 
women, the slave his fellow- servant, and present the 
culprit to him before the next assembly.' 

Another Judaising practice, which he condemns in the 
severest language, was the custom of keeping Easter on 
the 14th day of the month, according to Jewish calculation, 
irrespective of the week day on which it might fall ; thus 
sometimes feasting when the rest of the Church was fast- 
ing, or fasting when the rest was feasting. The existence 
of such a practice at this time was a remarkable instance 
of the increasing influence of the Jews in Antioch and the 
neighbouring regions. For up to the year a.d, 276, the 
Antiochene patriarchate had observed Easter in con- 
formity with the Catholic usage ; the adoption of the 
Jewish calculation was made after that date, when most 
of the rest of Christendom had dropped it, and was 
therefore the subject of special condemnation at the 



Cn. IX.] QUARTO-DECIMALS. 137 

Council of Nice. 1 Such a discrepancy in practice was 
regarded as a most serious rent in the unity of the Church. 
Chrysostorn denounces it especially as a contumacious 
disregard of the Council of Nice, which had distinctly 
ordained by the mouths of 300 bishops, that Easter should 
be kept at one and the same time throughout Christen- 
dom. He implores the Judaisers to desist from the idle 
enquiry into the exact dates of seasons ; to follow the 
Church, and to place harmony and charitable peace before 
all things. It was impossible, in fact, to hit the actual 
day on which Christ rose ; therefore let them observe that 
day which the Church through her bishops had prescribed. 
It was a less offence to fast on the wrong day than to rend 
the unity of the Church. ' How long halt ye between two 
opinions ; ' if Judaism be true, embrace it altogether, and 
' cease to annoy the Church ; if Christianity be true, abide 
in it, and follow it.' 2 

The Jews themselves could not, in Chrysostom's opi- 
nion, legally perform sacrifices, or observe festivals of any 
kind. Jerusalem was the only place in which such ob- 
servances were commanded ; and Jerusalem being de- 
stroyed, they became void. 3 They had been suspended 
during the Captivity, to be resumed when the people 
returned to the holy soil. If the Jews of the present day 
also expected restoration, let them likewise suspend their 
rites ; but, in fact, this never would occur. The Temple 
never would be rebuilt, and restoration was a vain hope. 
Jerusalem was to be trodden down of Gentiles till the 
times of the Gentiles were fulfilled ; and by the fulfilment 
of those times Chrysostorn understood the end of the 

1 Newman's ' Arians,' ch. i. p. 16. quired the reason, said, because it was 
Hefele, pp. 305, 306. unlawful except on the site of the 

2 In Jud. iii. 6, iv. 4. Temple ; and this was one chief reason 
■ According to Theod. iii. 20. The why Julian commanded the Temple to 

Jews had ceased to offer sacrifices by be restored, 
the reign of Julian, and when he en- 



138 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Oh. IX. 

world. 1 AH four Captivities of the Jews — their subjection 
to the Egyptians, Babylonians, Antiochus, and Eomans — 
had been distinctly foretold. To each of the first three 
prophecy had assigned a limit ; but to the last none — it 
reached into all time ; there was no sign or intimation of 
any probable cessation. 2 The revolt of the Jews under 
Hadrian, and under Constantine, 3 had ignominiously 
failed ; the attempt of Julian to rebuild the Temple had 
been frustrated by portents : fire issuing from the founda- 
tions had consumed some of the workmen, and scared the 
spectators ; the naked substructions left just as they were 
when the work was abandoned, presented a visible monu- 
ment of the divinely arrested work. 4 

The eager exhortation reiterated in his last homily, that 
the faithful would seek out their brethren who had been 
caught in the Jewish snare, is a powerful rush of indig- 
nant eloquence, and a wholesome admonition on the re- 
sponsibility of all for the spiritual welfare of their fellow 
men. ' Say not within thyself, I am a man of the world ; 
I have a wife and children ; these matters belong to the 
priests and the monks. The Samaritan in the parable did 
not say, Where are the priests ? where are the Pharisees ? 
where are the Jewish authorities ? but seized the opportu- 
nity of doing a good deed., as if it was a great advantage. 
In like manner, when you see anyone requiring bodily 
or spiritual care, say not within thyself, Why did not this 
or that man attend to him ? — but deliver him from his in- 
firmity. If you find a piece of gold in your path, you do 
not say, Why did not some other person pick it up ? but 
you eagerly anticipate others by seizing it yourself. Even 
so, in the case of your fallen brethren,- consider that you 
have found a treasure in the attention necessary for their 

1 V. 1. that there is no record of this rebel - 

2 V. c. 4-7. lion in history. 

" Who punished the captives by 4 For a full relation of this singular 

cutting off their ears. It is singular event, see Milman's ■ Jews,' book xx. 



Cm IX.] MISCHIEVOUS INFLUENCE OF JEWS. 139 

wants.' He besought them not to proclaim the calamity 
of the Church by idly gossiping about the numbers of 
those who had observed some Jewish custom, but to 
search them out ; and, if necessary, to enter their houses, 
tax them with their guilt, and solemnly warn them 
against the iniquity of consorting with the enemies of 
Jesus Christ. * Listen not to any excuses which they may 
plead on the ground of cures effected by the Jews ; expose 
their impostures, their incantations, their amulets, their 
charms, their drugs.' ' Even if they really effected cures, 
it would be better to die and save the soul, than resort to 
the enemies of Christ to heal the body. Let them rather 
appeal to the assistance of the martyrs and saints who 
were His friends, and had great confidence in addressing 
Him.' ' Why did the Son of Man Himself enter the 
world ? Was it not to seek and to save wandering sheep ? 
This do thou, according to thy ability. I will not cease to 
speak, whether you hear or whether you forbear. If you 
heed not, I shall do it, but with grief; if you listen and 
obey, I shall do it, but with joy.' l 

It is difficult for us, in our altered position towards Jews 
and heretics of all kinds to sympathise with the vehe- 
mence of Chrysostoin's feelings and language. Yet there 
can be no doubt that such dabbling, if the word may be 
used, in the customs, the observances, the ritual of an 
obsolete dispensation, and a debased people, did seriously 
imperil purity of faith and morals, and unity of discipline, 
in the Christian Church. It was beheld by the staunch 
Catholic with somewhat of the same dismay and horror 
with which the moderate Anglican witnesses any recur- 
rence to mediseval and pre-reformation ceremonial and 
dogma. 

Towards dissentient Christians, not infected by Judaism, 
Chrysostom adopts a milder tone, and indeed restrains 

1 Horn. viii. 4. and in fine. 



140 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHKYSOSTOM. [Cn. IX. 

the immoderation of party feeling in others with whole- 
some censure. He laments ! the distracted state of the 
Church in Antioch, which was now divided into the three 
sections of Meletians, Eustathians, and Arians ; but he 
denounces the practice of anathematising. It was un- 
charitable and presumptuous. St. Paul anathematised 
once only; the casting off of a heretic ought to be as 
painful as plucking out an eye or cutting off a limb. A 
holy man before their times, one of the successors of the 
Apostles, and judged worthy of the honour of martyrdom, 
used to say, that to assume the right to anathematise was 
as great a usurpation of Christ's authority as for a subject 
to put on the Imperial purple. In dealing with erring 
brethren, the Christian should ' in meekness instruct those 
that oppose themselves, if God, peradventure, will give 
them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. 5 ' If 
a man accepts your counsel and confesses his error, you 
have saved him, and delivered your own soul also ; but if 
he will not, do you nevertheless continue to testify with 
longsuffering and kindness, that the Judge may not re- 
quire his soul at thy hand. Hate him not ; turn not from 
him ; persecute him not, but catch him in the net of sin- 
cere and genuine charity. The person whom you anathe- 
matise is either living or dead ; if living, you do wrong to 
cut off one who may still be converted ; if dead, much 
more you do wrong ; "to his own Master he standeth or 
falleth;" and "who hath known the mind of the Lord, 
or who hath been his counsellor ? " You may anathema- 
tise heretical dogmas, but towards the persons who hold 
them show the greatest possible forbearance, and pray for 
their salvation.' 

In the winter of 386, Chrysostom preached a sermon 
on Christmas Day, which, though not distinguished by 

1 Horn, de Anathemate, delivered soon after the discourses against the 
Anornaeans. See Monituin. vol. i. 9i4. 



Cn. DL] SERMON OX CHRISTMAS DAY 141 

any unusual merit, possesses an interest of its own. We 
learn from it, that this festival was not originally cele- 
brated in the Eastern Church ; it had been adopted from 
the West, and, in Antioch at least, less than ten years 
before the year of Chrysostom's discourse. It had gra- 
dually increased in popularity, and this year Chrysostom 
rejoiced to observe that the church was crowded to over- 
flowing. Eome had fixed the observance of the 25th of 
December, and this was the day kept throughout Chris- 
tendom from Thrace to Gades ; but the propriety of the 
date was much debated in the Eastern Churches, and the 
observance of the festival at all was considered by some 
as a questionable innovation. Chrysostom energetically 
vindicates the dignity of the festival and the correctness 
of the date. 1 It was the metropolis, so to say, of all other 
festivals, and as such it was the most solemn and awful. 
For the incarnation of Christ was the necessary condition 
of all the succeeding events of his career on earth, and in 
the profundity of its mystery it exceeded them all. That 
Christ should die was a natural consequence of human 
nature once assumed ; but that He, being God, should 
have stooped so low as to assume that nature, was a 
mystery unfathomable to the mind of man ! c Wherefore 
I specially welcome and belove this day, and desire to 
make you partakers in my affection. I pray and implore 
you all to come with zeal and alacrity, every man first 
purging his own house, to behold our Lord wrapped in 
swaddling clothes and lying in a manger ; for if we come 
with faith we shall, indeed, behold Him lying in the 
manger ; for this Table supplies the place of the manger, 
and here also the body of the Lord will lie, not wrapped 
in swaddling clothes, but invested on all sides by the 
Holy Spirit. The initiated (or the baptized) understand 

1 The former chiefly in the Horn. the Horn, in Xat. Diem Christi, vol. ii. 
de Philog. vol. i. 752; the latter in p. 552. 



142 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Cm IX. 

wliat I mean. 5 1 But lie warns his hearers against crowd- 
ing in a tumultuous and disorderly manner to partake of 
the holy feast. * Approach with fear and trembling, with 
fasting and prayer, not making an uproar, hustling and 
jostling one another : consider, man, what kind of 
sacrifice thou art about to handle ; consider that thou, 
who art dust and ashes, dost receive the body and blood 
of Christ.' 2 This irreverent conduct at the reception of 
the Eucharist frequently provoked the indignation and 
censure of Chrysostom. It occurred especially at the 
greater festivals, because on those days multitudes re- 
ceived the Eucharist who did not enter the church at 
other times. 'How/ he cries in the homily on the Epi- 
phany, 6 shall we teach you what is necessary concerning 
your soul, immortality, the kingdom of heaven, the long- 
suffering and mercy of God, and a future judgment, 
when you come to us only once or twice in the year ? ' 
Many of those who pushed and kicked one another in 
the eagerness of each to get foremost to the holy Table, 
withdrew from the church before the final thanksgiving. 
' What,' Chrysostom cries, ' when Christ is present, and 
the angels are standing by, and this awe-inspiring Table 
is spread before you, and your brethren are still partaking 
of the mysteries, will you hurry away ? ' Too often they 
who thronged the church on these great occasions led 
worldly and even vicious lives ; they hurried away before the 
sacred feast was ended, like Judas to do the devil's work. 3 
Such is one among many examples which may be elicited 
from Chrysostom's works of that pagan grossness and 
superstition which was mingled with the faith and the 
most solemn observances of Christianity. The vitality of 
superstitious customs, the subtlety with which they have 
grafted themselves upon and become mixed up with Chris- 

1 De Beato Philog. vol. i. p. 753. 2 In Nat. Christi, vol. ii. p. 360. 

3 De Bapt. Christi, c. 4. 



Ch. IX.] PAGANISM AT ANTIOCH. 143 

tianity, or the tenacity with which they have clung to 
men in spite of it late into modern times, is indeed ex- 
traordinary; but for centuries their existence and in- 
fluence were not appreciably if at all affected by Chris- 
tianity. A half Oriental, half Greek, partly Jewish 
population, like that of Antioch, whose purer feelings and 
nobler reason were seriously impaired by habits of licen- 
tiousness and luxury, was naturally liable to superstitious 
terrors, and addicted to superstitious practices of all 
kinds. Chrysostom is frequently reproving his people for 
being anxious and afraid where there was no cause, while 
they abandoned themselves to vice, the only worthy cause 
for fear, without scruple or alarm. If Christmas Day was 
observed as a Christian festival, though without becoming 
reverence, New Year's day was given up to riotous festi- 
vity, thoroughly Pagan in character. The houses were 
festooned with flowers, the inns were scenes of the most 
disgraceful intemperance ; men and women drinking un- 
diluted wine there from an early hour in the morning ; 
auguries and omens were consulted by which the horo- 
scope of the year was cast. Good luck in the coming 
year was supposed to depend (how is not clearly stated) 
on the manner in which the first day was spent. This is 
the theme of the preacher's righteous indignation : ' The 
real happiness of the year was determined not by the 
observation of particular feasts, but by the amount of 
goodness which we put into it. Sin was the only real evil, 
virtue the only real good ; therefore, if a man practised 
justice, almsgiving, and prayer, his year could not fail to 
be propitious ; for he who had a clean conscience, carried 
about with him a perpetual holy day, and without this, 
the most brilliant and joyous festival was obscured by 
darkness.' ' When thou seest the year completed, thank 
God that He has brought thee safely to the conclusion of 
the cycle : prick thine heart, reckon up the time of thy 



144 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. IX. 

life, and say to thyself, The days are hurrying along, 
the years are being fulfilled, I have advanced far on the 
road, the judgment is at the doors, my life is pressing on 
towards old age : well ! what good have I done ? shall I 
depart hence destitute and empty of all righteousness ? ' l 

There is a fuller notice in some of his homilies on the 
Epistle to the Ephesians of the many gross and senseless 
forms of superstition which prevailed even among the 
communicants in the Christian Church. He laments the 
decay of discipline by which a more rigorous scrutiny 
was once instituted into the characters of those who came 
to the holy feast. ( If you were to examine the lives 
of all those who partake of the mysteries on Easter 
Day, you would find amongst them persons who consulted 
auguries, who used drugs, and omens, and incantations ; 
even the adulterer, curser, and drunkard, dared to par- 
take. Iniquitous men had crept into the Church, the 
highest places of command were bought and sold, till the 
pure livers had betaken themselves to the mountain tops 
to escape from the contamination.' 2 Some of the vulgar 
superstitions of the day were ludicrously puerile. ' This 
or that man was the first to meet me as I walked out ; 
consequently innumerable ills will certainly befall me : 
that confounded servant of mine, in giving me my shoes, 
handed me the left shoe first ; this indicates dire cala- 
mities and insults : as I stepped out, I started with the 
left foot foremost ; this too is a sign of misfortune : my 
right eye twitched upwards as I went out ; this portends 
tears.' 3 To strike the woof with the comb in a particular 
way, the braying of a donkey, the crowing of a cock, a 
sudden sneeze, — all these were indications of something 
or other. c They suspect everything, and are more in 
bondage than if they were slaves many times over. But 

1 In Kalend. c. 2. 3 Perhaps that convulsive twitching 

2 In Ephes. hom. vi. c. 4. which we call 'quick-blood.' 



Cfc. IX.] PAGAN SUPERSTITIONS. 145 

let not us, brethren, fear such things, but laughing them 
to scorn as men who live in the light, and whose citizen- 
ship is in Heaven, and who have nothing in common with 
this earth, let us regard one thing only as terrible, 
namely, to sin and offend God.' l 

1 In Ephes. horn. xii. c. 3. In horn. it that name which was attached to 

viii. and xii. on 1 Cor. he rebukes the the candle that burned longest out of 

heathenish ceremonies performed at a row of candles, 
the birth of a child. One was, to give 



146 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. X. 



CHAPTER X. 

SURVEY OF THE FIRST DECADE OF THE REIGN OF THEODOS1US — HIS 
CHARACTER — HIS EFFORTS FOR THE EXTIRPATION OF PAGANISM AND 
HERESY — THE APOLOGIES OF SYMMACHTJS AND LIBANTUS. A.D. 
379-389. 

Befoee Chrysostom liad laboured two full years in ' con- 
firming the souls of the disciples ' at Antioch, that city 
became the scene of events memorable in. history ; and 
events in which the great preacher played an honourable 
and distinguished part. 

The foremost man of the age, not only by position but 
also to a great extent in character, was Theodosius the 
Emperor ; Theodosius the Great, deservedly so called in 
spite of one prevailing defect in character, and a few glar- 
ing misdeeds which tarnish his reputation. The military 
exploits of his father, Theodosius the elder, had provoked 
the jealousy of the court l and cost him his life, and the son, 
who had manifested ability almost equal, in serving under 
him both by land and sea against Scots and Saxons, 
Moors and Goths, was glad to escape a similar ungrateful 
return for his services, by retiring to the obscurity of 
his native village in Spain. He was disgraced when the 
Empire had' been liberated from danger by the exertions 
of his father and himself; but in the hour of its utmost 
jeopardy, and direst distress, he was recalled to more 
than his former position. The total defeat and death of 
Valens, and the almost extermination of his army before 
Hadrianople in a.d. 378, placed the Empire at the mercy 
of victorious barbarians within, and on the edge of the 

1 He was executed at Carthage in a.d. 376. 



Oh. X.] THEODOSIUS MADE EMPEKOR. 147 

horizon more storm clouds of Gothic or Hunnish inva- 
sion were lowering*. There was but one person to whom 
the mind of Gratian, the young Emperor of the West, 
and his advisers, overwhelmed by the prospect of impend- 
ing calamity, instinctively turned as capable of saving the 
state in this crisis. For three years, Theodosius had 
been occupied with the cultivation of his farm between 
Valladolid and Segovia, when he was summoned to accept 
the title of Augustus, together with all the responsibilities 
and perils which attended the possessor, at such a time, 
of that venerable name. He was equal to the situation ; 
handsome with a manly beauty, courageous and deter- 
mined of purpose, just and politic in intention if not 
always in act, he was endowed with some of the noblest 
qualities of a soldier and a statesman, by which to rescue 
and reorganise a panic-stricken and crumbling state. 
This is not the place to narrate the military achievements 
of Theodosius. The original materials for information 
respecting them are scanty ; but they have been collected 
and arranged by that historian whose indefatigable in- 
dustry brings order out of confusion, and whose luminous 
style lights up with interest even the darkest and most 
meagre annals. 1 It is sufficient to remind the reader of 
Gibbon, that Theodosius subdued the Goths, not in any 
one or two great battles, but by frequent and skilfully 
contrived engagements on a smaller scale. He thus 
gradually revived the drooping courage and discipline of 
the imperial troops, and wore out the enemy. The several 
tribes, on their submission, were settled in the waste tracts 
of country, which they were to occupy free of taxation, on 
the wise condition that they kept the land in a state of 
cultivation. So a numerous colony of Visigoths was 
established in Thrace, of Ostrogoths in Phrygia and Lydia. 
The ability of Theodosius is demonstrated more by the 

1 See Gibbon, eh. xxvi. xxvii. 
i. 2 



148 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. X. 

results of his energy than by anything that we know of 
the manner in which he accomplished them. He not only 
vanquished the Goths, but arrested the progress of the 
usurper Maximus in the West, who was leading his vic- 
torious legions to Italy, flushed with success after the igno- 
minious flight and assassination of Gratian. Theodosius 
was not in a position, surrounded as he was by half- 
vanquished barbarians, to dispute the passage of the con- 
queror ; but by assuming a firm tone in negotiations, 
he secured for Yaientinian, Gratian's brother and suc- 
cessor, the sovereignty of Italy, Africa, and Western 
Illyricum, surrendering for the present to the usurper the 
regions north of the Alps. 

Theodosius was a Christian; as a Spaniard he was a 
Trinitarian, and as a soldier he was anxious to establish 
one uniform type of religious faith and ecclesiastical dis- 
cipline throughout the Empire. But such a task proved 
more impracticable than the reduction of military foes. 
Neither Paganism nor Arianism could be extinguished in a 
few years by suppressive edicts. Theodosius himself had 
been baptized in the first year of his reign, a.d. 380, when 
his life was threatened by a severe illness, and he had 
then annnounced his will and pleasure that his own 
solemn declaration of faith should be accepted as that of 
his subjects also. That faith which was 'professed by the 
Pontiff Damasus arid Peter, Bishop of Alexandria,' was to 
be the faith of the Empire. ' Let us believe the sole deity 
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, under an equal 
majesty and a pious Trinity. We authorise the followers 
of this doctrine to assume the title of Catholic Christians, 
and as we judge that all others are extravagant madmen, 
we brand them with the infamous name of heretics.' 1 
Their places of assembly were not to enjoy the title of 
churches, and they themselves were to expect severe civil 

1 Cod. Theod. xvi. 1, 2. 



Cn. X.] HIS LAWS AGAINST HEEETICS. 149 

penalties as well as the Divine condemnation. Damophilus, 
the Arian Bishop of Constantinople, preferred exile to 
signing the creed of Nice ; and Gregory of Nazianzum 
was conducted by the Emperor in person through the 
streets of Constantinople (though not without a strong 
guard) to occupy the episcopal throne. A project for 
another general council (after the Council of Constan- 
tinople, a.d. 381,) was entertained but abandoned, for the 
factious demeanour of the several prelates and their par- 
tisans on their arrival did not augur a very successful 
settlement of differences by that method. The Emperor 
fell back, for the accomplishment of his object, on his own 
authority. On July 25, a.d. 383, an edict was posted 
in Constantinople, prohibiting all the heretics therein 
named, Arian s, Eunomians, Macedonians, and Mani- 
chseans, from holding any kind of assembly, public or 
private, either in the cities or in the country. Any ground 
or building used for such illegal purpose was to be confis- 
cated to the state; and the penalty of banishment was 
pronounced against those who allowed themselves to be 
ordained priests or bishops of the heretical sects. His- 
torians concur in the opinion that few of these penalties 
were actually enforced. The heretical sects were not 
animated by a spirit of martyrdom ; the intimidation was 
generally sufficient. 1 The hypocrite or the indifferent 
confoimed, the more conscientious retired into obscurity. 
There seem to have been few if any Arian prelates of great 
and commanding ability. All the leading ecclesiastics of 
the day — Chrysostom, Jerome, Basil, the two Gregories, 
and Ambrose — were by conviction on the side of the Em- 
peror, and added all the weight of their influence to his 
decrees. 

When measures had been taken for the suppression of 

1 Sozom. vii. c. 12; Gibbon, cli. xxvii. ; De Broglie, ' L'Eglise et L'Empire,' 
vi. p. 93. 



150 LIFE AND TBIES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. X. 

heresy, it was the Pagan's turn to suffer. The spectacle 
of temples standing open for worship side by side with 
Christian churches, was a painful incongruity in the eyes of 
Theodosius, with his soldier-like ideas of uniformity and 
discipline. The first blow was directed against those dis- 
loyal sons of the Church who had seceded to Paganism. 
They were deprived of the power to make wills or to 
receive bequests. 1 The second step was absolutely to 
prohibit all sacrifices in those temples which were still 
open. Nearly twenty years before, the sacrifice of animals 
had been forbidden by Yalentinian and Yalens, owing to 
their connection with arts of divination, which were used 
for political purposes. As long as such sacrifices were 
permitted, the priests could not refrain from consulting 
the entrails of the victims, and pretending to read therein 
future events : the death of this Emperor, the elevation 
of that, the success or failure of expeditions, and the like, 
were intimated to the people, always eager to know what is 
beyond the limits of human knowledge. Such divinations 
encouraged a restless spirit in the subjects, and often dis- 
affected them towards the ruling power. That these laws 
of Yalentinian were renewed by Theodosius in 381, and 
again in a.d. 385, proves that they had been imperfectly 
obeyed. 2 

They were followed up by a yet more decisive step in 
a.d. 392. Cynegius, the Prsstorian Prefect of the East, 
the Counts Jovinus and Gaudentius in the West, were com- 
missioned to shut up the temples, to destroy their contents, 
images, and vessels, and to confiscate their property. In 
many instances the executors of the edict, aided by the 
fanatical fury of monks, seem to have exceeded their 
instructions. The great temple of Jupiter, at Apamea, in 

1 Cod. Theod. xvi. v. 7, 1. 1, 2. Eugenius, the usurper, after the death 

2 Cod. Theod. xvi. v. 10, 1. 7, 9. of Valentinian II., was persuaded by 
Sozonien informs us (vii. 22) that divinations to take up arms. 



(H. X.] AND AGAINST PAGANS. 151 

Syria, of which the roof was sujyported on sixty massive 
columns, fell, but not unavenged; for the Bishop Mar- 
cellus, who headed the assailants, fell a victim to the rage 
of the exasperated rustics who defended it. 1 The safety of 
the universe was represented by Pagans to depend on the 
preservation of the colossal gold and silver image of 
Serapis, at Alexandria. Even Christians beheld with 
some trepidation an audacious soldier deal a blow with 
a battle-axe on the cheek of this awful deity ; but as the 
only result of the gash was the issue of a swarm of rats 
who had harboured in the sacred head, instead of the 
avenging thunders which had been expected, a revulsion 
of feeling was experienced. The huge idol was hewn to 
pieces, the limbs were dragged through the streets, and 
the remains of the carcase burued in the amphitheatre, 
amidst the derision of the populace. 

These were shattering blows to Paganism. But the 
religion of sentiment and custom long survives the ex- 
tinction of more solid if not reasonable convictions. 
Chrysostom's homily on New Year's day is only one 
among many illustrations of the way in which Pagan rites 
and superstitions lingered, especially in connection with 
public festivals. All the Pagan concomitants of these 
festivals in the country districts — hymns, libations, gar- 
lands, incense, lights — were strictly prohibited, under 
heavy penalties, by Theodosius in a.d. 392, but, in the 
West especially, the extirpation was very incomplete. The 
Bishops of Verona and of Brescia protested, but in vain, 
against the proprietors of land indulging their tenantry 
in these practices. Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia, were 
strongholds of Paganism as late as a.d. 600. Sacrifices 
were offered to Apollo on Monte Casino till the estab- 
lishment of St. Benedict's monastery in a.d. 529. 

The riotous populace of towns, and the simple country 

1 Sozomeu vii. 1.3. Theocl. v. 21. 



152 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHKYSOSTOM. [Ch. X. 

folk attached to old customs, thus evinced some spirit in 
their resistance to repressive enactments. But the hold 
which Paganism retained upon intellectual people was 
feeble indeed. Two apologists only, with any pretensions 
to ability, stepped forward to plead for the sinking cause : 
Symmachus l in the West, and Libanius in the East ; and 
their intercessions are addressed to sentiments of affection 
for antiquity, and compassion for oppressed weakness, 
rather than to the reason. Symmachus, as is well known, 
pleaded twice for the retention of the altar and statue of 
Yictory in the senate house at Rome. Eloquent and 
touching, his appeal is directed to patriotic feeling and a 
sense of political expediency, not to religious conviction. 
He does not profess to believe in the Pagan deities, but 
regards with a philosophic eye the various kinds of faith 
in the world as so many forms of homage to the great 
unknown Being who presides over the universe. 6 It is 
right to recognise that what all adore can be at bottom 
but one Being only. We contemplate the same stars ; 
the same sky covers us ; the same universe incloses us. 
What matters it by what reasonings each seeks the truth ? 
a single path cannot conduct us to the grand secret of 
nature. As an individual, a man may be a worshipper of 
Mithras, or of Christ, but as a citizen it is his duty to 
conform to that worship which is bound up with the his- 
tory and glory of his country ; to part from it is heartless 
and disloyal.' 2 

The memorial of Symmachus got into the hands of 
Ambrose, and was rather rudely treated by him. He 
subjects it to a stern test of facts. 'Had the national 
gods indeed protected the Romans from disaster ? It was 
maintained that by their aid the conquest of Italy by 

1 The most distinguished scholar tor, praetor, and proconsul of Africa, 
and orator, and one of the most up- 2 Fragments of his speeches pre- 

right statesmen • of his time — quaes- served in Mai's collection, vol. i. 






Ch. X.] SYMMACHUS AND AMBROSE. 153 

Hannibal had been averted. Why then did they permit 
the invader to inflict such ravages as he had done? 
Would not the Gauls also have captured the Capitol, but 
for the timely cry of the goose? Where was Jupiter 
then ? but perhaps he was speaking through the goose. 
The Carthaginians worshipped some of the same deities 
as the Eomans. If then the gods conquered with the 
Romans they yielded with the Carthaginians. Paganism 
declined, notwithstanding support ; the Church flourished, 
in spite of opposition. As to the abandonment of ancient 
customs, was not progress the law of improvement ? The 
glimmering dawn gradually brightened into the full and 
perfect day : the riches of harvest and vintage came in 
the maturity of the year ; even so the faith of Christ had 
gradually planted itself on the ruins of a worn-out creed, 
and was now reaping an abundant harvest among all 
nations of the earth.' 1 The whole reply of Ambrose is 
pitched in the positive, confident, authoritative tone of 
one who speaks from a conviction that he stands on the 
l^latforin of absolute truth, and that his cause is therefore 
inevitably destined to win. 

If the appeal of Symmachus was addressed to the sen- 
timent of reverence for national antiquity, that of Libanius 
was directed to a sentiment of attachment to classical an- 
tiquity. The citizen mourns over the suppression of a 
worship which was bound up with the history and the 
glory of his country ; the scholar sighs over the degrada- 
tion of that which was connected with what was most 
beautiful in the literature and life of the olden time — with 
the poetiy of Homer and the tragedians — with the festive 
song and dance — with the hills, and fountains, and groves 
of Greece. He clings to the past with the love of the 
antiquarian. Though his actual belief in the myths of the 
classical era may not have been very deep or earnest, 

1 Ambrose Op. vol. ii. Ep. IS. 



154 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. X. 

there is no doubt that he entertained a genuine animosity 
towards the new faith which was usurping their place. A 
flowery description of the origin and antiquity of the 
honour paid to the gods, is followed by a vehement invec- 
tive against the monks, i those black-robed creatures, more 
voracious than elephants, who rush upon the temples, 
armed with stones, wood, and fire ; who break up the roofs, 
destroy the walls, throw down the statues, raze the altars.' 
' They glaringly exceeded the edicts of the Emperor, which 
had forbidden the offering of sacrifice in the temples, not the 
actual destruction of the buildings.' l There is real feeling 
also in his description of the distress caused in country 
districts by the demolition of the temples. e They were 
the centres round which human habitations and civili- 
sation grew; in them the labourer placed all his hopes; 
to them he commended his wife, his children, his planta- 
tion, his crops. Deprived of the gods, from whom he ex- 
pected the rewards of toil, he felt as if henceforth his 
labours would be vain. Sometimes the very land was 
wrested from them on the pretext that it had been conse- 
crated to gods ; if the poor despoiled owners sought redress 
from the pastor (i.e. the bishop) of the neighbouring town 
(falsely called pastor, since there was no gentleness in his 
nature), he praised the robber and dismissed the corn- 
plainer s.' No doubt to a great extent this was a true 
picture, and such harshness and injustice must have 
retarded (as is ever the case when the attempt is made to 
coerce opinion) the cause of Christianity, which the law 
was intended to promote. 

Theodosius, however, was in principle far too upright to 
treat the Church with a blind partiality. Cynegius, the 
Prefect, was ordered to enforce the law at Alexandria with 
fall rigour against those despicable beings who sought to 

1 Liban. pro templis non exscind. before the Emperor, and probably not 
The oration was certainly not spoken even sent to him. 



Ch. X] THE EMPRESS FLACILLA. 155 

make traffic by informing against Pagans. Constantine 
had exempted the clergy from serving in curial offices ; 
Theodosius compelled them to pay for substitutes, and 
renounce their claims to patrimony. They were to enjoy 
immunity from torture when brought to trial, but if de- 
tected in falsehood were to be visited with penalties of 
peculiar severity, because they had abused the shelter of 
the law which favoured them. 1 

Such was Theodosius — a prudent and skilful general, 
a firm and upright ruler ; a sincere and simple-minded 
believer in Christianity, who did his best, as head at once 
of the army, the civil government, and the Church, to 
consolidate the fabric of the Empire. The barbarians 
were repelled, or held down, taxes were collected with 
honest exactitude ; some of the most burdensome were 
taken off; Paganism and heresy languished, however far 
from being extinguished, and the Emperor fondly hoped 
that uniformity in faith and discipline would soon be 
established throughout Christendom. 

The good genius of his life was the Empress Flacilla; 
she was a Christian of a pure and noble type ; imperial 
state had not corrupted the simplicity or hardened the 
kindliness of her disposition. She was accustomed to 
visit the hospitals in Constantinople not attended by a 
single slave or waiting- woman; administered food and 
medicine to the patients, and dressed their wounds with 
her own hands. She was wont to remind her husband of 
the great change in their worldly position, as a motive to 
humility and gratitude to God. ' It behoves thee to con- 
sider what thou wert and what thou hast become ; by 
constantly reflecting on this thou wilt not be ungrateful 
to thy benefactor, but wilt guide the kingdom which thou 
hast received with a due regard to law, and by so doing 
wilt pay homage to Him who gave it thee.' 

1 Cod. Tlieod. xii. 104-115, 



156 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. X. 

She, we may well believe, restrained the impulses of 
that choleric temper which was the principal defect in 
the Emperor's character, and which occasionally after her 
death burst forth into acts of deplorable violence. This 
wise and pious monitress was taken from him in a.d. 385. 
She died at a watering-place in Thrace, whither she had 
gone to recover her health after the shock caused by the 
death of the infant Princess Pulcheria. Her body was 
brought back to Constantinople on a melancholy day in 
autumn, when the skies poured down a gentle rain, as 
if mingling their tears with those of the disconsolate 
people. 1 

This condensed survey of the character and work of 
Theodosius, during the first ten years of his reign, will 
assist us in forming a proper estimate of his conduct 
in that memorable occurrence which brings his life into 
connection with the life of Chrysostom. 

1 Theodor. v. 19. A funeral oration by Gregory Nyssen. Greg. Nyss. Op. 
on her and the infant was pronounced vol. iii. pp. 515, 527, 533. 



15' 



CHAPTER XT. 

THE SEDITION AT ANTIOCH THE HOMILIES OX THE STATUES THE 

RESULTS OF THE SEDITION. A.D. 387. 

The wise counsel and softening influence of the Empress 
were removed from her husband at an inopportune season. 
Political storms were approaching, and the passionate 
temper of Theodosius was soon to be subjected to a most 
severe trial. 

The year 388 would have completed the first decade 
of his reign. The year 387 was the fifth of the reign of 
his son Arcadius, whom he had nominally associated with 
himself in the government. The celebration of these two 
events Theodosius, from motives of prudent economy and 
convenience, resolved to combine. The army on such occa- 
sions claimed a liberal donative, five gold pieces to each 
man. It was obviously desirable, therefore, to avoid, if 
possible, the repetition of such a donative within a 
short space of time. It was always a strain on the royal 
treasury, and at the present juncture, the strain was 
increased, for the Goths were assuming a menacing atti- 
tude on the Danubian frontier. It was necessary to mass 
troops in that direction, and with a view to provide for 
these expenses, it was proposed to raise a special subsidy 
from the opulent cities of the Eastern empire. But the 
inhabitants of Alexandria and Antioch were loth to part 
with any of the wealth which they had accumulated during 
nearly ten years of peace, and exemption from onerous 
taxation. Large meetings were held by the citizens of 
Alexandria in the theatres and other public places ; inflam- 



158 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XL 

roatory and seditious speeches were made. c If we are to 
be treated thus,' they cried, 6 a simple remedy is open, we 
will appeal to Maximus in the West ; he knows how to 
shake off a troublesome tyrant.' Fortunately the Prefect 
Cynegius was a man of firmness and promptitude ; he 
made some arrests of . the most conspicuous leaders of the 
mutinous faction, and enforced an immediate payment of 
the tribute, and by these decisive measures public order 
was restored. Either the people of Antioch were more 
deeply disaffected, or no such energetic officer was in that 
city to suppress the spirit of rebellion in the bud. It is 
said that the inhabitants entertained a grudge against 
the Emperor, because he had never visited their city, 
which had been frequently graced by the royal presence in 
previous reigns. 1 

The edict which enjoined the levying of the tribute was 
proclaimed by a herald on February 26. Large numbers 
of the people assembled on the spot, collected chiefly into 
groups, amongst which were some persons of distinction, 
senators and other civic functionaries, noble ladies, and 
retired soldiers. An ominous silence succeeded the an- 
nouncement of the edict. The crowd then dispersed, but 
reassembled about the preetorium, where the governor 
resided. 2 There they stood in gloomy silence, save that 
the women, from time to time, raised a wailing lamenta- 
tion, crying that the ruin of the city was determined, and 
that since the Emperor had abandoned them, God alone 
from henceforth could come to their succour. At last a 
little band detached itself from the mass, shouting that 
they must go and seek the Bishop Flavian, and constrain 
him to intercede with the Emperor on their behalf. 
Flavian, by accident or design, was absent from the epis- 

1 Libanius Or. 12, pp. 391-395. of the East, who from that time re- 

2 Probably the praetorium built in sided in Antioch. Y. Miiller ' Antiq. 
the reign of Constantine for the Count Antioch,' ii. 1 6. 



Cn. XL] DESTRUCTION OF ROYAL STATUES. 159 

copal residence, and the mob returned to the praetorium, 
crying that the governor must do them justice. The 
people appear to have been excited to violence chiefly by 
those turbulent foreign adventurers who abounded in 
Antioch, sordid venal creatures, often hired by actors to 
get up applause in the theatres, or by great men not over 
popular to raise cheers when they appeared in public 
places. But however stimulated, the passions of the mob 
were thoroughly roused, and their fury vented itself in a 
tumultuous rush into one of the great public baths, where 
they soon tore everything to pieces. Having completed 
this work of destruction, they hurried back once more to 
the hall of the unfortunate governor. Here they were 
kept at bay by a guard for a sufficient time to enable the 
governor to escape by a back door, and when they at last 
succeeded in bursting in, the vacancy of the place aggra- 
vated their rage. The governor was not seated in the 
judicial chair, but they found themselves face to face with 
the statues of the imperial family, which as emblems of 
authority were ranged above it. They paused for a few 
moments ; highly excited as they were, imperial majesty, 
even so represented, had some deterrent influence over 
their passions. 

But, unfortunately, there were bo} T s in the crowd ; the 
love of stone- throwing without respect of persons was as 
ardent in boy nature fifteen hundred years ago as it is 
now. A stone was cast by one of these juvenile hands, 
which hit one of the sacred statues. The momentary 
feelings of reverence which had arrested the people were 
dissipated. The images were mutilated, almost battered 
to pieces, and the fragments dragged through the streets. 
Other images of the imperial family with which the city 
was adorned were treated in the same manner ; the 
equestrian statue of Count Theodosius, father of the 
Emperor, was dislodged from its pedestal and hacked 



160 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHEYSOSTOM. [Ch. XL 

about, amidst derisive shouts of ' Defend thyself, grand 
cavalier ! ' l 

The unrestrained fury of the people was inflamed by 
success ; they began to bring up torches and actually set 
fire to one of the principal buildings of the city, when the 
governor, who had escaped their hands, returned at the 
head of a company of archers. As usual with disorderly 
mobs, however furious, they were unable to face the dis- 
cipline of military force ; the soldiers were no sooner 
drawn up and preparing to fix their weapons than rage 
turned to panic, and the mob, lately so formidable, melted 
away. 

The whole tumult had not lasted more than three 
hours ; before noon, every one had returned to his home, 
the streets and squares were empty, and a death-like 
stillness pervaded the city. Remorse was mingled with 
great terror respecting the consequences of the outrage 
which had been perpetrated. The Emperor, indeed, was 
humane and forgiving of wrongs which concerned himself 
alone, but how would he brook the insults done to the 
memory of his father and his tenderly beloved Empress ? 
One hope remained : Elavian, the bishop, was a favourite 
at court, his intercessions might avail; the people be- 
sought him with tears to stand their friend in this dis- 
tress. From Antioch to Constantinople was a long and 
perilous journey of 800 miles, and the winter was not yet 
ended. Elavian was old, his only sister was seriously ill, 
and the approaching season of Lent required his presence 
at Antioch, but a sense of the emergency prevailed over 
all these obstacles. Animated by the spirit of the Good 
Shepherd who was ready to lay down his life for his 
flock, the intrepid old man set out upon his errand of 
mercy, with all possible speed, in the hope of overtaking 
the messengers who had started before him, but had 

1 Liban. Or. 12, p. 395and 21, p. 527. Theod.vii. £0. Sozom. vii. 23. Zos.iv.41. 



(ii. XL] HOMILIES ON THE STATUES. 161 

been detained at the foot of Mount Taurus by a fall of 
snow. 1 

During the absence of Flavian all the powers of Chry- 
sostoni as an orator, pastor, and a citizen, were called 
forth in attempting to calm the fears and revive the 
deeply-dejected spirits of the people. Perseveringly did 
he discharge this anxious and laborious task ; almost 
every day for twenty-two days, that small figure was to 
be seen either sitting in the Ambo, from which he some- 
times preached, on account of his diminutive stature, or 
standing on the steps of the altar, the preacher's usual 
place ; a and day after day, the crowds increased which 
came to listen to the stream of golden eloquence which 
he poured forth. With all the versatility of a consum- 
mate artist, he moves from point to point. Sometimes a 
picture of the city's agony melts his hearers to tears, 
and then again he strikes the note of encouragement and 
revives their spirits by bidding them take comfort from 
the well-known clemency of the Emperor, the probable 
success of the mission of Flavian, and above all, from 
trust in God. 

' The gay and noisy city, where once the busy people 
hummed like bees around their hive, was petrified by fear 
into the most dismal silence and desolation ; the wealthier 
inhabitants had fled into the country, those who remained 
shut themselves up in their houses, as if the town had 
been in a state of siege. If anyone ventured into the 
market-place, where once the multitude poured along like 
the stream of a mighty river, the pitiable sight of two or 
three cowering, dejected creatures in the midst of solitude 
soon drove him home again. The sun itself seemed to 

1 Chrys. Horn, de Stat. III. i. own orations or in any other his- 

xxi. i. Zosimus (iv. -±1), sends Li- torian. 

banius also to Constantinople, but 2 Socrat. vi. 5. The most common 

this is a palpable error. There is no practice was for the preacher to sit, 

trace of his having gone, either in his the people to stand. 

M 



162 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHEYSOSTOM. [Ch. XL 

veil its rays as if in mourning. The words of the prophet 
were fulfilled, " Their sun shall go down at noon, and 
their earth shall be darkened in a clear day" (Amos viii. 
9). Now they might cry, " Send to the mourning women, 
and let them come, and send for cunning women that they 
may come" (Jer. ix. 17). Ye hills and mountains take 
up a wailing, let us invite all creation to commiserate 
our woes, for this great city, this capital of Eastern cities, 
is in danger of being destroyed out of the midst of the 
earth, and there is no man to help her, for the Emperor, 
who has no equal among men, has been insulted ; there- 
fore let us take refuge with the King who is above, and 
summon Him to our aid.' l 

The chief reason of the people's extreme dejection was, 
that the governor and magistrates, probably to disarm any 
suspicion at court of their own complicity in the sedition, 
were daily seizing real or supposed culprits, and punishing 
them with the utmost rigour. Even those who might 
have been pardoned on account of their tender age, were 
mercilessly handed over to the executioner. Chrysostoin 
speaks of some even having been burnt, and others thrown 
to wild beasts. ' The weeping parents followed their un- 
happy offspring at a distance, powerless to help but fearing 
to plead, like men on shore beholding with grief ship- 
wrecked sailors struggling in the water, but unable to 
rescue them.' 2 

But the object of Chrysostom was, not to rest in ineffec- 
tual lamentations, but partly to rouse the people from their 
profound dejection, partly to print, if possible, on their 
hearts, humbled and softened by distress, deep and lasting 
impressions of good. He told them that there was every- 
thing to be hoped for from the embassy of Flavian. 
' The Emperor was pious, the bishop courageous, yet 
prudent and adroit ; God would not suffer his errand to 

i Horn. II. 2. 2 III. c. 6. 



Ch. XL] MISSION OF FLAVIAN. . 163 

be fruitless. The very sight of that venerable man would 
dispose the royal mind to clemency. Flavian would not 
fail to urge how especially suitable an act of forgiveness 
Avas to that holy seasou, in which was commemorated the 
Death of Christ for the sins of the whole world. He 
would remind the Emperor of the parable of the two 
debtors, and warn him not to incur the risk of being one 
day addressed by the words, " Thou wicked servant, I 
forgave thee all that debt, shouldest not thou also have 
had compassion on thy fellow-servants?" He would re- 
present that the outrages had not been committed by the 
whole community, but chiefly by some lawless strangers. 
He would plead that the inhabitants, even had they all 
offended, had already undergone sufficient punishment in 
the anxiety and alarm which they endured. It would be 
unreasonable to visit the crime of a few by the extirpation 
of a whole city, a city which was the most populous capi- 
tal of the East, and dear to Christians as the place where 
they had first received that sweet and lovely name.' 1 

Meanwhile he earnestly calls upon the people to improve 
this season of humiliation by a thorough repentance and 
reformation in respect of the prevailing vices and follies. 
The words of St. Paul in writing to the Philippians, * to 
write the same things to you, to me, indeed, is not griev- 
ous, and for you, it is safe,' might be aptly applied to 
Chrysostom. He is never tired of denouncing special 
sins and exhorting to the renunciation of them in every 
variety of language. Ostentatious luxury, sordid avarice, 
religious formalism, a profane custom of taking rash oaths, 
were the fashionable sins against which he waged an in- 
cessant and implacable warfare. 

His exhortations are generally based on some passage 
read in the lesson of the day. ' What have we heard to- 
day? " Charge them that are rich in this world, that they 

1 III. c. 1, 2. 
M 2 



164 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XL 

be not high-minded." He who says " the rich in this 
world," proves there by that there are others rich in 
regard to a future world, like Lazarus in the parable.' 
'Wealth of this world was a thankless runaway slave, 
which, if bound with thousands of fetters, made off, fetters 
and all. Not that he would quarrel with wealth ; it was 
good in itself, but became evil when inordinately desired 
and paraded, just as the evil of intoxication lay not in 
wine itself, but in the abuse of it. The Apostle did not 
charge those who were rich to become poor, bnt only not 
to be high-minded. Let us adorn our own souls before we 
embellish our houses. Is it not disgraceful to overlay our 
walls with marbles and to neglect Christ, Who is going 
about unclothed? What profit is there, man, in thy 
house ? Wilt thou carry it away with thee ? Nay, thou 
must leave thy house; but thy soul thou wilt certainly 
take with thee. Lo ! how great the danger which has 
now overtaken us : let our houses, then, be our defenders ; 
let them rescue us from the impending peril ; — but they 
will not be able. Be those witnesses to my words who 
have now deserted their houses, and hurried away to the 
wilderness as if afraid of nets and snares. Do you wish 
to build large and splendid houses ? I forbid you not, 
only build them not upon the earth ; build yourselves 
tabernacles in heaven — tabernacles which never decay. 
Nothing is more slippery than wealth, which to-day is 
with thee and to-morrow is against thee ; which sharpens 
the eyes of the envious on all sides; which is a foe in 
your own camp, an enemy in your own household. 
Wealth makes the present danger more intolerable ; you 
see the poor man unencumbered and prepared for what- 
ever may happen, but the rich in a state of great embar- 
rassment, and going about seeking some place in which 
to bury his gold, or some person with whom to deposit it. 
Why seek thy fellow- servants, man? Christ stands 



Ch. XL] HOW TO KEEP LENT. 165 

ready to receive and guard thy deposits — yea, not only to 
guard, but also to multiply and to return with rich inte- 
rest. No man plucks out of his hand ; men, when they 
receive a deposit from another, deem that they have con- 
ferred a favour upon him ; but Christ, on the contrary, 
declares that He receives a favour, and instead of demand- 
ing a reward, bestows one upon you.' l 

He entreated them to make the present Lent a season 
of spiritual renovation. 4 Lent fell in the spring, when 
the stream of industry which the winter had frozen began 
to flow again. The sailor launched his vessel, the soldier 
furbished his sword, the farmer whetted his scythe, the 
traveller set out confidently on his long journey, the athlete 
stripped for the contest.' ' Even so let this fast be to us a 
spiritual spring-tide; let us polish our spiritual armour, 
let us breast the waves of evil passions, set out like travel- 
lers on our journey heavenwards, and prepare like athletes 
for the combat. For the Christian is both husbandman, 
and pilot, and soldier, and athlete, and traveller. Hast 
thou seen the athlete ? hast thou seen the soldier ? if thou 
art an athlete thou must strip to enter the lists ; if thou 
art a soldier thou must put on armour before taking thy 
place in the ranks. How then to the same man can both 
these things be possible ? ' ' How, dost thou ask ? I will 
tell thee. Strip thyself of thy worldly business and thou 
hast become an athlete ; clothe thyself with spiritual 
armour and thou hast become a soldier. Strip thyself, for 
it is a season of wrestling ; clothe thyself, for we are en- 
gaged in a fierce warfare with devils. Till thy soul, and 
cut away the thorns ; sow the seed of piety, plant the 
good plants of philosophy, and tend them with much care, 
and thou hast become a husbandman, and St. Paul will say 
to thee " the husbandman which, laboureth must first be a 
partaker of the fruits." Whet thy sickle which thou hast 

1 II. 5. 



166 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XL 

blunted by surfeiting; sharpen it, I say, by fasting. Enter 
on the road which leads to heaven, the rugged and narrow 
road, and travel along it. And how shalt thou be able to 
set out and travel ? By buffeting thy body and bringing 
it into subjection ; for where the road is narrow, obesity, 
which comes from surfeiting, is a great impediment. 
Repress the waves of foolish passions, repulse the storm of 
wicked imaginations, preserve the vessel, display all thy 
skill, and thou hast become a pilot.' ' The originator and 
instructor of all these arts was abstinence ; not the vulgar 
kind of abstinence, not abstinence from food only, but also 
from sins. c If thou fastest, show me the results by thy 
deeds. What deeds, do you ask? If you see a poor man 
have pity on him, if an enemy be reconciled, if a friend in 
good reputation, regard him without envy. Fast not only 
by thy mouth, but with thine eyes, thine ears, thy hands, 
thy feet ; avert thine eyes from unlawful sights, restrain 
thy hands from deeds of violence, keep thy feet from 
entering places of pernicious amusement, bridle thy mouth 
from uttering and stop thine ears from listening to tales 
of slander.' f This kind of fast would be acceptable to 
God, only it should be co-extensive with life. To spend a 
few days in penance and then to relapse into the former 
course of life, was only an idle mockery.' % He disparaged 
that rigorous kind of fasting which some had carried to 
the extent of taking no food but bread and water. ' Many 
boasted of the number of weeks they had fasted ; this ex- 
cessive abstinence was likely to be followed by a reaction. 
Let them seek rather to subdue evil passions and habits ; 
let one week be devoted to the suppression of swearing, 
another of anger, a third of slander, and so gradually 
advancing they might at last attain the consummation of 
virtue, and propitiate the displeasure of God.' 3 ' Let us not 
do now what we have so often done, for frequently when 

1 IIT. 3. -III. 4, 5. 3 XVI. 6, 



Cil. XI.] AGAINST RASH OATHS. 107 

earthquakes, or famine, or drought have overtaken us, we 
have become temperate for three or four days and then 
have returned to our former ways of life. But, if never 
before, now at least let us remain stedfast in the same 
state of piety, that we may not again require to be chas- 
tised by another scourge.' l 

Almost all the homilies are concluded by an admonition 
against the sin of swearing, and the greater portion of 
some is devoted to this topic. The passionate impetuous 
people of Antioch seem to have been constantly betrayed 
iuto the folly of binding themselves by rash oaths. The 
master, for instance, would take an oath to deprive his 
slave of food, or the tutor his scholar, till a certain task 
was accomplished, a threat which it was of course often 
impossible to enforce. Hence perjury on the part of the 
superior and loss of respect on the side of the subordinate. 
Chrysostom himself had often dined at a house where the 
mistress swore that she would beat a slave who had made 
some mistake, while the husband would with another oath 
forbid the punishment. Thus one of the two would be 
inevitably involved in perjury. 2 He frequently exhorted 
his hearers to form a kind of Christian club amongst them- 
selves for the suppression of this vice. In one place he 
suggests a stern remedy : * When you detect your wife or 
any of your household yielding to this evil habit, order 
them supperless to bed, and if you are guilty impose the 
same penalty on yourself.' 3 Near the close of Lent he 
declares that he will repel from the holy Table at Easter 
those whom he detects still addicted to this vice. 4 

1 III. 7. 2 XIV. 1. pretended it was next to impossible 

3 V. 7. to conquer an inveterate habit: this 

4 XX. 9. A passage in another was a paltry excuse, perseverance 
homily on this subject is curious, as could conquer any difficulty. To un- 
proving that just the same juggler's learn a habit of swearing could not 
feats were performed in Antioch in be more impossible than to acquire 
the fourth century as at the fairs and the art of throwing up swords, and 
races of the present day. ' Persons catching them by the handle, or bal- 



168 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Cu. XL 

On the whole the eager and earnest pastor may be said 
to have rejoiced at the grand opportunity afforded by the 
humiliation of the city, to effect a reformation in the moral 
life of the people. He observed with great satisfaction, 
that if the forum was deserted the church was thronged, 
just as in stormy weather the harbour is crowded with 
vessels. 1 Many an intemperate man had been sobered, 
the headstrong softened, or the indolent quickened into 
zeal. Many who once assiduously frequented the theatre 
now spent their day in the church. Meanwhile they must 
abide God's pleasure for the removal of their affliction. 
He had sent it for the purpose of purifying and chastening 
them; He was waiting till He saw a genuine an un- 
shakeable repentance, like a refiner watching a piece of 
precious metal in a crucible, and waiting the proper mo- 
ment for taking it out. 2 As for those who said what they 
feared was not so much death as ignominious death by the 
hand of the executioner, he protested that the only 
' death really miserable was a death in sin. Abel was mur- 
dered and was happy, Cain lived and was miserable. John 
the Baptist was beheaded, St. Stephen was stoned, yet 
their deaths were happy. To the Christian there was 
nothing formidable in death itself. To dread death but 
not to be afraid of sin was to act like children who are 
frightened by masks whilst they were not afraid of fire. 
What, I pray you, is death ? It is like the putting off of 
a garment, for the soul is invested with a body 3 as it were 
with a garment, and this we shall put off for a little while 
by death, only to receive it again in a more brilliant form.' 
i What, I pray you, is death ? It is but to go a journey for 
a season, or to take a longer sleep than usual.' Death was but 

ancing a pole on the forehead with 2 IV. 2. 

two boys at the top of it, or dancing 3 V. 3. rb (rcap-ary tyvxfi Trepi/ceiTcw 

on a tight rope.' — Horn, in Dom. KuOdnep I/jloltiov. Compare Shakspere : 

Serv. ' When we have shuffled off this mortal 

1 IV. 1, roil.' 



Cn. XL] SIGNS OF A CREATOR. 169 

a release from toil, a tranquil haven. Mourn not over hira. 
who dies, but him who living in sin is dead while he liveth.' l 

Chrysostom's own calmness, and his skill in diverting 
the thoughts of his flock from present alarm, are mani- 
fested by the power and ease with which he dilates on 
such grand topics as the creation, Divine Providence, the 
nature of man, and his place in the scale of created beings. 
His best thoughts, expressed in his best style on these 
subjects, are to be found in the homilies now under con- 
sideration. 

6 The size and beauty of the universe, but still more the 
perfect regularity with which the system worked, pro- 
claimed a designing power. The succession of day and 
night, the series of the seasons, like a band of maidens 
dancing in a circle, the four elements of which the world 
was composed, mingling in such exquisite proportions that 
they exactly balanced one another, the sun tempering the 
action of water, the water that of the sun, the sea unable 
to break its bounds or reduce the earth to a mass of clay ; 
who could contemplate all these forces at work and suppose 
that they moved spontaneously, instead of adoring Him 
who had arranged them all with a wisdom commensurate 
with the results ? As the health of the body depended on 
the due balance of those humours of which it was com- 
posed, if the bile increased fever was produced, or if the 
phlegmatic element prevailed many diseases were engen- 
dered, so was it in the case of the universe ; each element 
observed its proper limits, restrained, as it were, with a 
bridle by the will of the Maker ; and the struggle between 
these elements was the source of peace for the whole 
system. As the body failed, languished, died, in propor- 
tion as the soul was withdrawn from it, so if the regulating 
and life-giving power of God's providence were removed 
from the earth, all would go to rack and ruin, like a vessel 
deserted by her pilot.' 2 

1 V. 3. 2 IX. 3, 4. 



170 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XL 

In treating this subject, he manifests a keen appre- 
ciation of natural beauties. 6 The infinite varieties of 
flowers and herbs, trees, animals, iusects, and birds — the 
flowery fields below, the starry fields above — the never- 
failing fountains — the sea receiving countless streams into 
its bosom, yet never overflowing, — all proclaimed a Creator 
and an Upholder, and drew from man the exclamation, 
" How manifold are Thy works ; in wisdom hast Thou made 
them all ! " Yet, lest they should be worshipped instead 
of the Maker, conditions of change, as decay or death, 
were imposed upon all.' 1 His observation of nature 
appears in some of his similes. The poor female relatives 
hovering about the courts of justice, when the culprits of 
the outrage on the statues were being tried, he compares 
to parent birds, which wildly flutter round the hunter who 
has stolen the young from their nest, in an agony of grief, 
but impotent from weakness and fear. 2 He perceives in 
some of the lower animals characteristics to be imitated or 
avoided, and describes them with a kind of humour. ' The 
bee especially was a pattern for imitation, not merely 
because it was industrious, but because it toiled with an 
unconscious kind of self-sacrifice for the benefit of others 
as well as itself. It was the most honourable of insects ; 
the spider, on the contrary, was the most ignoble, because 
it spread its fine web for its own selfish gratification only. 
The innocence of the dove, the docility of the ox, the 
light-heartedness of birds, were all examples for imitation. 
The ferocity, or the cunning of other animals or insects, 
were examples for avoidance. The good which brutes had 
by nature man might acquire by force of moral purpose ; 
and the sovereign of the lower animals ought to comprise 
in his nature all the best qualities of his subjects. 3 The 
plumage of the peacock excelling in variety and beauty all 

1 X. 2, 4. 2 XIII. 2. 3 XII. 2. 



Oh. XL] ETHICAL DOCTRINE. 171 

possible art of the dyer, evinced the superhuman power of 
the Maker of all things.' 1 

His ethical doctrine bears singular resemblance to 
that of Butler. God has bestowed on man a faculty 
of discerning right from wrong ; He has impressed upon 
him a natural law, the law of conscience. Hence some 
commands are delivered without explanation; for in- 
stance, the prohibition to kill, or to commit adultery, 
because these merely enjoin what is already evident by 
the light of the natural law. On the other hand, for the 
command to observe the Sabbath, a reason is assigned, 
because this was a special and temporary enactment. The 
obligation of the law of conscience was universal and 
eternal. As soon as Adam had sinned, he hid himself, a 
clear evidence of his consciousness of guilt, although no 
written law existed at that time. 

The Greeks might attempt to deny the universality of 
this inherent law, but to what other origin could they 
ascribe the laws which had been made by their own an- 
cestors concerning respect for life, the marriage bond, 
covenants, trusts, and the like ? They had indeed been 
handed down from generation to generation ; but whence 
did the first promulgators derive the idea of them, if not 
from this moral sense? To the law of conscience was 
added the energy of a moral purpose, irpoaipsais, which 
enabled man to practise what conscience prescribed : con- 
science informs man that temperance is right ; moral 
purpose enables him to become temperate. God had also 
endowed man with some natural virtues : indignation at 
injustice, compassion for the injured, sympathy with the 
joys and sorrows of our fellow men. 3 At the same time 

1 X. 3. pare also his description of irpoaipea-is 

2 XII. 2-4. XIII. 3. Conrp. Aris- as the hpxh Kirfi<rms in b. iii., and 
totle's distinction between natural and of (pp6vr)(ris (nearly = Butler's 'Con- 
conventional law or justice, Eth.v. 7, 1. science,') in b. vi. 

• (pvaindv ' and vofiinov dUaiov. Com- 



172 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHEYSOSTOM. [Ch. XI. 

Chrysostom fully allows the value of training and teaching 
as supplementary to and co-operating with all these na- 
tural gifts. 1 If conscience grew languid, the admonition of 
parent and friend, and, in the case of public offences, the 
law, stepped in, to effect what conscience failed to do ; 
and frequently God sent afflictions for the same remedial 
purpose. 2 

Thus, day after day the indefatigable preacher sounded 
the note of encouragement, or warning, or instruction. 
He not only held the Christian flock together, but largely 
increased its numbers. His eloquence frequently excited 
rapturous applause, which was invariably repressed with 
sternness. On one occasion the congregation yielded to a 
panic ; a false rumour was circulated that a body of troops 
was entering the city, to take vengeance on the inhabi- 
tants. The Prefect entered the church to allay the fears 
of the affrighted people who had fled thither, but Chry- 
sostom was overwhelmed with shame, and sharply up- 
braided them that a Christian congregation should owe 
the restoration of calmness to a Pagan, whom they ought 
to have impressed, like Paul before Agrippa, by a display 
of Christian firmness and fortitude. 3 

About the middle of Lent, two commissioners, Hellebicus 
and Csesarius, arrived at Antioch, invested with full powers 
to enquire into the late outrage. Their authority was 
backed by a considerable military force. They were men 
not only of intelligence and humanity, but Christians in 
faith ; and they had many friends in Antioch. They en- 
tered the city, surrounded by a large multitude, who turned 
weeping faces and held out supplicating hands towards 
them. The commissioners were moved, and in deep silence 
entered the lodging provided for them ; but it was neces- 

1 Comp. again what Aristotle says Comp. Chrys. horn. xiii. 3,withArist. 

of the necessity of training to improve Eth. ii. 4, 5. 
the natural gifts, b. x. 9, and of the 2 XIII. 4. 

formation of habits by repeated acts. 3 XVI. 1 . 



Cn. XL] AXTIOCTI DEGRADED. 173 

sary for them to perform their duty, which was in the first 
place to announce that Antioch was degraded from the 
rank of capital of Syria, and its metropolitan honours 
were transferred to the neighbouring city of Laodicea. 
Secondly, all the public baths, circuses, theatres, and other 
places of recreation, were to be closed for an indefinite 
time. Thirdly, the commissioners were to revise the trials 
already held by the local governor, and to inflict rigorous 
sentences upon all the guilty, especially any persons of 
distinction. These judicial proceedings were to begin on 
the following day. 

The scene at the entrance of the court was a melancholy 
spectacle ; the wives and daughters of the accused hung 
around it in mean garments sprinkled with ashes, and in 
attitudes of supplication or despair. 

There were no lawyers to plead for the prisoners ; they 
had run away or concealed themselves, to evade the peri- 
lous duty. Libanius alone, towards evening, crept timidly 
into the court. Csesarius, to whom he was known, ob- 
served him, beckoned him to approach, and placed him 
by his side. In a low voice he bade him take courage, 
himself and colleague would endeavour as much as possi- 
ble to spare life. Libanius earnestly thanked him, and 
promised if he kept his word to immortalise him by an 
oration in his honour. 1 

An appeal, however, more effectual, was made to the 
mercy of the commissioners, by persons widely different 
from Libanius. As they were riding in state to the hall 
of justice on the second day, they saw amongst the people 
a group of strange half-wild-looking beings, in rough 
coarse garments, with long unkempt hair. These were 
hermits, who had descended from their solitudes in the 
neighbouring mountains — some who for years had not been 
seen in the streets of the city, but now appeared to plead 

1 Liban. Or. 21, in Helleb. and 20, 517. 



174 LIFE AND TIMES OF St. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XI. 

on behalf of the offending people. An old man. diminutive 
in stature, whose clothing was in tatters, started forward 
from the group as the commissioners passed by, seized the 
bridle of one. and commanded them in a tone of autho- 
rity, to dismount. * TVho is this mad fellow ? ' enquired the 
commissioners. They were informed that he was the 
revered hermit Macedonius, somamed Crithophagus, or 
the barley-eater, because barley was his only sustenance. 
Hellebicus and Ctesarius immediately alighted, and. falling 
on their knees before him. craved his pardon for having 
received him so rudely. ■' My friends.* replied the solitary. 
' go to the Emperor and say, " You are an emperor, but 
also a man, and you rule over beings who are of like 
nature with yourself. Man was created after a Divine 
image and likeness : do not, then, mercilessly command 
the image of God to be destroyed, for you will provoke 
the Maker if you punish his image. For, consider that 
you are doing this from displeasure at the injury inflicted 
on a statue of bronze : and hew far does a living rational 
creature exceed the value of such an inanimate object ! 
Let him consider that it is easy to manufacture many 
statues in the place of those destroyed, but it is "wholly 
impossible for him to make a single hair again of those 
men who have been put to death." ' l The other hermits 
declared that they were all prepared to shed their blood 
and lay down their lives for the culprits ; that they would 
not withdraw from the city until they were sent as am- 
bassadors to the Emperor, or until the city itself had 
been acquitted. The joy of Chrysostom at the courage 
displayed by these hermits was extreme : their noble 
conduct compensated for the sad .pusillanimity lately 
exhibited by the congregation in the church. He tri- 
umphantly contrasts them with the so-called philosophers 
of Antioch, who appear to have displayed anything but 
1 Tbeodor. v. 20. 



I 



Or. XL] INTERCESSION OF HERMITS. 175 

philosophic calmness in the hour of danger. c Where 
now are those long-bearded, cloak- wearing, staff-bearing 
fpllows — cynic refuse, more degraded than dogs licking 
up the crumbs under the table, doing everything for their 
belly ? Why, they have all hurried out of the city and 
hidden themselves in caves and dens, whilst those who 
inhabited the caves have entered the city, and boldly 
walk about the forum as if no calamity had happened. 
Their conduct illustrates what I have never ceased to 
maintain, that even the furnace cannot injure one who 
lives in virtue. Such is the power of philosophy intro- 
duced to man by Christ.' ! The result of this singular 
intercession was, that the commissioners consented to 
suspend the execution of their sentence on those pro- 
nounced guilt}', until an appeal had been made to the 
Emperor. Meanwhile the prisoners were to remain in 
confinement, and their property to be held by the State. 

The hermits were anxious to repair to the court of 
Theodosius, but the commissioners wisely refused, making 
the length of the journey an objection, but perhaps really 
because they feared such excitable zealots might frustrate 
the object of their embassy by imprudent behaviour. It 
was finally decided that Hellebicus should remain to pre- 
serve order in Antioch, while his colleague went to Con- 
stantinople, carrying with him an intercessory letter 
signed by the hermits, and declaring that they were 
ready to give their own lives in ransom for the city. 

Caasarius departed amidst the blessings and acclama- 
tions of the people. 2 

What had the energetic preacher, who had sustained 
the spirits of the people so long, been doing, since the 
arrival of the Emperor's legates ? It had been, indeed, a 
relief to find that the city was not to be surrendered to 

1 Horn. xvii. 1, 2. 

2 Liban. Orat. 20. De Broglie, vi. 150, 151. Chrys. hom. xvii. 2. 



176 LIFE AXD TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XL 

the sword; but, to a proud arid luxurious people the loss 
of metropolitan rank, and the closing of the public baths, 
theatres, and public places of amusement, were severe 
blows. Loud and general was the lamentation over their 
fallen grandeur and their lost enjoyments. Chrysostom 
expostulated with them on their discontent. 'The real 
dignity of a city did not consist in pre-eminence of rank 
or vastness of population, but in the virtue of its citizens. 
What constituted the noblest reputation of Antioch ? — 
the fact that the disciples there were the first to be 
called Christians — that they had sent relief to the dis- 
tressed brethren in Judea in the time of the famine 
(Acts xL 28, 29) — that they had sent Paul and Barna- 
bas to that Council at Jerusalem which had emancipated 
the Gentile Christians from Judaic bondage. These were 
honourable distinctions, which no other city, not even 
Eome itself, could rival. They enabled Antioch to look 
the whole Christian world in the face, for they proved 
how great had been her Christian courage and her 
Christian love. These were her true metropolitan 
honours ; and, if these were in aught diminished, not 
by the size or beauty of her buildings, not by her airy 
colonnades or her spacious porticoes and promenades, 1 not 
by the sacred Grove of Daphne, not by the number and 
loftiness of her cypresses, not by her fountains or her 
multitudinous population, or her genial climate, making- 
walks in the depth of evening pleasant and secure, — not 
by these could she recover her tarnished reputation, but 
by equity, almsgiving, vigils, prayers, temperance. Ex- 
ternal size and beauty did not constitute real greatness. 
David was little of stature, yet he prostrated by a single 
blow a very tower of flesh. Away with these womanish 
complaints ! I have heard many in the forum saying, 

1 XVII. 2. The colonnades, espe- the irepiirarovs or promenades, were 
cially of the great street which ran lined by colonnades with seats. — V. 
through the city from east to west, Miiller, Antiq. Ant. ii. 12. 



Cn. XL] FLAVIAN RETURNS. 177 

" Woe to thee, Antioch, what has become of thee, how art 
thou dishonoured ! " and when I heard I laughed at the 
childish understanding of those who say such things. It 
behoves you not to speak thus, now ; but, when you see 
dancing, and drunkenness, and singing, and blaspheming, 
and swearing, then utter the cry, Woe to thee, O city! 
what has become of thee ? but when you see only a few 
equitable, temperate, and moderate men in the forum, 
then call the city happy.' * 

He remonstrates indignantly with them for their queru- 
lous complaints of the prohibition to use the public baths. 
Bathing, indeed, was a luxury so indispensable to the 
bodily health and comfort of the people, that they now 
resorted to the river in large numbers, with very little 
regard to decency. He reminds those who murmured 
over this deprivation of their favourite indulgence, that a 
short time ago, when they were daily expecting an in- 
cursion of soldiers, and were flying to the desert and 
mountains, they would have been too thankful to escape 
with so cheap a penalty. He urges the duty of recon- 
ciliation with enemies as specially incumbent on them 
when such great efforts were being made to obtain mercy 
for themselves. They should have one enemy alone, 
the devil, with whom they should wage an implacable 
warfare. 2 

Thus the prophet, ever vigilant for the true welfare 
and honour of his people, ceased not to lift up his voice. 

Csesarius travelled day and night, and in the course of 
a week accomplished the eight hundred miles which sepa- 
rated Antioch from Constantinople. But his arrival and 
his errand had been anticipated. Flavian had reached the 
court a week before, and the pardon of Antioch was already 
obtained. The aged bishop returned to Antioch just in 
time to celebrate Easter, and to augment the natural joy- 

1 XVII. 2. 2 XX. 5, and XVIII. in fine. 

N 



178 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Cn. XI. 

fulness of the festival by the tidings which he brought. 
He had, however, been preceded a few days by an express 
courier, who delivered the imperial rescript to Hellebicus. 
When the contents were publicly proclaimed, the pent-up 
feelings of the people burst forth into demonstrations of 
almost frantic joy. Hellebicus was received with ovation 
wherever he went. Libanius walked by his side, reciting 
passages from his orations, in honour of Theodosius and 
praise of the two commissioners. 1 On Holy Saturday, 
Flavian himself entered the city, partly attended, partly 
borne along by vast crowds of grateful people. On that 
night the forum was decorated with garlands and illu- 
minated by lanterns. On the next morning, Easter-day, 
a vast concourse thronged the church, and once more the 
well-known voice, which had exhorted and encouraged and 
warned, during the days of their gloom, now poured forth 
in the sunshine of their joy a psean of thanksgiving a,nd 
praise. 

6 Blessed be God, who hath vouchsafed us to celebrate 
this holy feast with great joy and gladness, who has restored 
the Head to the body, the Shepherd to the sheep, the 
Master to his disciples, the Pontiff to the priests. Blessed 
be God, who hath done exceeding abundantly above all 
that we ask or think, for it seemed to us sufficient to be 
for a time released from the impending calamities ; but 
the merciful God, ever exceeding in his gifts our petitions, 
has restored to us our father sooner than all our expecta- 
tion.' ' Not only had their beloved prelate escaped all the 
perils incident to so long a journey in the winter season, 
but had found his sister, whom he had left on the point 
of death, still living to welcome his return.' 2 

He then proceeds to describe the interview of Flavian 
with Theodosius, as it had been related to him by an eye- 
witness. The bishop, when introduced into the royal 

1 Liban. Or. xxi. p. 536. 2 XXI. 1. 



Ch. XL] FLAVIAN AND THE EMPEROR. 179 

presence, stood at a distance, silently weeping, bending 
low, and covering his face, as if lie liimself had been the 
author of all the late offences. By this attitude he hoped 
to expel emotions of anger, and introduce the emotion of 
pity into the Emperor's breast, before he undertook the 
actual defence of the city. 

Theodosius was moved ; he advanced to the bishop, and 
used no harsh or indignant language, but only mildly re- 
proached with ingratitude a city which he had always 
treated with lenity, and had long desired and intended to 
visit. Even had the people been able to accuse him of any 
injury done to them, they might at least have respected 
the dead, who could do them no harm (alluding to the 
destruction of his wife's and father's images). 

The aged prelate no longer remained silent. With a 
fresh flood of tears, he poured forth his pathetic appeal to 
the Christian clemency and forbearance of the Emperor. 
* He would not attempt to extenuate the offence, the sense 
of their ingratitude caused them the deepest distress, and 
they frankly confessed that it deserved the severest chas- 
tisement which could be inflicted. Yet the noblest kind 
of revenge which he could take was freely to forgive the 
insult ; thereby he would defeat the malice of those demons 
who had tried to work the ruin of the people by seducing 
them from their allegiance. In like manner, the devil had 
tried to compass the death of the human race, but his 
malevolence had been frustrated by God, who offered even 
heaven to those who had been excluded from Paradise. A 
free pardon would secure for him a station in the hearts of 
all his subjects, far more enduring than those statues which 
had been broken down. He reminded him, how once his 
great predecessor, Constantine, when urged to revenge 
some insult done to one of his statues, passed his hand 
over his face, and observed, with a quiet smile, that he did 

N 2 



180 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XL 

not feel the blow ; a saying which had endeared him to 
his people more than his military exploits. But why need 
he refer to Constantine ? Theoclosius himself, on a previous 
Easter, had commanded a general release of prisoners, and 
had nobly exclaimed, " TVould that it were possible also for 
me to recall the dead to life !" ! 2sow he might in some 
sort realise that wish, by restoring to security a whole 
city, which lay. as it were, dead under remorse and fear. 
Such an act of clemency would both strengthen his own 
throne and the cause of Christianity. Greeks, Jews, and 
barbarians were waiting to hear his decision. If it was 
on the side of mercy, all would applaud it, saying, 
" Heavens ! how mighty is the power of Christianity, 
which has restrained the wrath of a monarch who has not 
his peer in the world. " How noble a tale for posterity to 
hear, that what the governor and magistrates of a great 
city dared not ash, had been granted to the prayer of an 
old man, because he was the priest of God, and from 
reverence to the Divine laws. He would solemnly remind 
him of the words, " If ye forgive not men their trespasses, 
neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive you 
your trespasses." He begged him to remember that there 
was a day coming in which all men would render an ac- 
count of their actions, and to imitate the example of God, 
who, though daily sustaining insults from man, did not 
cease to bestow blessings upon him. He concluded by 
declaring that he would never return to Antioch unless 
he could take back the imperial pardon, but would enrol 
himself in another city.' 2 

1 It was the custom to signalise the in a.d. 381-385, that it should apply 

great festivals by acts of mercy. ' The only to those accused of petty offences : 

oil of mercy glistens on the Festivals the grosser crimes of robbery, adultery, 

of the Church,' says Ambrose, Sena. magic, murder, sacrilege, were to be 

14-, on Ps. cxviii. 7. Leo the Great, excepted from claims to this indulg- 

also, Serm. 39, alludes to the custom. ence. 
But, to prevent any abuse of the 2 Horn. xxi. 1-4. 

practice, it was enacted by Theodosius 



Cu. XL] AXTIOCH PARDONED. 181 

If Flavian's intercession was thrown into the form of an 
oration at all, it is clear that Chiysostom's version of it, 
which has been here greatly condensed from the original, 
must be his own, rather than the speech actually delivered. 
If it had been only half as long, it could not have been ac- 
curately related to him from memory, or faithfully rehearsed 
by him afterwards. The excitement of addressing so large 
an audience on so great an occasion, would naturally 
stimulate him to amplify and embellish. 

There is, however, no reason to doubt that Chrysostom 
has furnished us with an accurate description of Flavian's 
conduct in the interview, and given us the main substance 
of his arguments. The whole narrative of the occurrence 
illustrates the difference between the Eastern and Western 
character. Compare the demeanour of Ambrose and of 
Flavian. The first speaks in a tone of majestic authority, 
which brooks no disputing ; the other, though far from 
deficient in courage, approaches the Emperor with that 
deferential and submissive manner which the oriental is 
accustomed to adopt in the presence of a potentate. His 
tone is that of an appeal, though based upon the highest 
grounds ; not of a command. There is something of the 
courtier in Flavian ; in Ambrose there is more of the 
pope. 

To conclude Chrysostom's account : the Emperor was 
deeply affected, though, like Joseph, he refrained himself 
in the presence of spectators. He declared his intention 
of granting a free pardon, in language eminently Chris- 
tian. c If the Lord of the earth, who became a servant 
for our sakes, and was crucified by those whom He came 
to benefit, prayed for the pardon of his crucifiers, what 
wonder was it that a man should forgive his fellow- 
servants ? ' He begged Flavian to return with all expe- 
dition, that he might release the people from the agony 
of their suspense. The bishop entreated that the young 



182 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Cn. XL 

prince Arcadius might accompany him as a pledge of 
imperial favour to the city. But Theodosius said that 
he designed to confer on Antioch a greater honour. He 
requested the bishop to offer up prayers for the termina- 
tion of the present war, that he might ratify his pardon 
by a visit to the city in person. The express courier was 
then despatched, while Flavian followed at a pace more 
suitable to his dignity and advanced age. 

Chrysostom concludes his discourse by a moral ex- 
hortation suggested by those festive demonstrations of joy 
already described. ( Let the lanterns and the chaplets be 
to them emblems of spiritual things. Let them not cease 
to be crowned with virtue or to light up a lamp in their 
soul by the diligent practice of good works ; let them 
rejoice with holy joy and thank God not only for rescuing 
them from destruction, but for sending them so whole- 
some a chastisement, the salutary effects of which would, 
he trusted, extend to many generations.' V 

Thus terminated the celebrated sedition of Antioch. 
It is a singular and instructive picture of the times : the 
impulsive character of the people, in the great Eastern 
cities of the Empire, alternating between frantic rage and 
abject despondency; the expectation of violent imperial 
vengeance, nothing less than the extermination of the 
city; the remarkable veneration paid to monks, — these 
are points which stand out in vivid colours. But still 
more remarkably this event supplies an example of the 
softening, humanising influence of Christianity, in a fierce 
and heartless age. The issue reflects the greatest honour 
on those who brought it to pass ; and they were all Chris- 
tians: the intrepid old bishop, sacrificing comfort and 
risking life to intercede, the generous Emperor who 
yielded to the persuasion of his Christian arguments ; the 
humane commissioners; and last but not least* the pastor 

1 XXL 4. 



Ch. XL] CONVERSION OF PAGANS. 183 

and preacher, who, with unwearied patience, invincible 
courage, unfailing eloquence, sustained the fainting spirits 
of his flock, and endeavoured to convert their calamity into 
an occasion of lasting good. 

One great and happy result of the recent trouble was 
a large accession of Pagans to the ranks of the Church. 
When the city lay under ban, the baths, theatres, circus, 
were closed, and the panic-stricken people had no heart 
to pursue their ordinary business. But one place had 
been constantly open. All knew that in the church 
prayer was being offered up day by day ; and to the first 
portion of the service up to the end of the sermon, there 
was free admission for all without respect of creed. 
Curiosity alone, if not any deeper feeling, would lead 
many Pagans to turn into the church, to hear what con- 
solations, what encouragements the Christian preacher 
had to offer in this season of general distress and painful 
suspense. And what had they heard? An unsparing 
exposure and denunciation of the follies and vices which 
prevailed in that great and dissolute city, a trumpet call 
to repentance and reformation ; the fleeting nature of 
earthly honour and earthly riches, their impotence to 
satisfy the heart or to save the life in the time of danger 
and distress had been vividly contrasted with the Chris- 
tian's aim of laying up treasure which should not fail in 
a world which would not be destroyed, with the Chris- 
tian's faith that righteousness was the only permanent 
good, as sin was the only real evil, that to a good man 
death was only the transition to a more blessed life, and 
that affliction was useful in purifying and elevating the 
soul. They had heard the proofs of a Creator, and of His 
providential care for the things which He had made as 
evinced by the majesty, beauty, and organisation of the 
universe, by the conscience and moral faculties of man, 
as well as by the more direct testimony of the written 



184 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XI. 

word. 1 There is no evidence as to the number of con- 
verts reclaimed from Paganism. Chrysostom only informs 
us 2 that he was occupied for some time after the return 
of Flavian with confirming in the faith those who c in 
consequence of the calamity had come to better mind and 
deserted from the side of Gentile error.' 
The sermons themselves are lost. 

1 Horn. i. de Anna, vol. iv. c. 1, where he recapitulates the arguments 
which he had used in the Homilies on the Statues. 

2 Horn, de Anna, i. c. 1. 






185 



CHAPTER XII. 

ILLNESS OF CHRYSOSTOM — HOMILIES ON FESTIVALS OF SAINTS AND 

MARTYRS CHARACTER OF THESE FESTIVALS — PILGRIMAGES — 

RELIQUES — CHARACTER OF PEASANT CLERGY IN NEIGHBOURHOOD OF 
ANTIOCH. A.D. 387. 

Vert probably the physical labour and mental strain 
which Chrysostom had undergone during the events 
recorded in the previous chapter may have brought on 
the illness to which he alludes in the homily preached on 
the Sunday before Ascension Day. 1 He was prevented 
by this attack from taking part in the services which 
were held some time after Easter under the conduct of 
Bishop Flavian at the chapels built over the remains of 
martyrs and saints, 2 A variety of homilies delivered by 
Chrysostom at such ' martyries ' on other occasions are 
extant, and it may be as well to introduce here such indi- 
cations as can be collected from them of the general 
feeling of the Church, as well as of himself, with regard 
to saints, and such kindred subjects as pilgrimages and 
reliques. 

Churches had in most instances been erected to com- 
memorate the death of a martyr, or to mark the spot 
where he died. Tertullian's saying that ' the blood of 
martyrs was the seed ' of the Church, thus became verified 
in a literal, material sense. Socrates (iv. 23) even speaks 
of the churches of St. Paul and St. Peter at Rome as 

1 Called Kvpian)] tt}s iincrw^ofMevrjs, completed by his return into heaven, 

this last word being the name of (v. Leo Allatius, quoted in Suicer 

Ascension Day among the Cappado- Thesaur. sub verbo ' Episozomene,' 

cians, possibly because Christ's work and Bingham, Antiq. b. xx. sect. 5.) 

on earth for man's redemption was 2 Horn, de Stat. 19, i. vol. ii. 



[Ck. XII. 

their 'martyries,' as Eusebius l also calls the church which 
Constantine built on Golgotha the f martyr y ' of our 
Saviour. By the age of Chrysostoin the festivals of martyrs 
and saints had grown so numerous that frequently more 
than one occurred in the same week. 5 * Good Friday and 
Ascension Day, and the Sunday after Whitsun Day (not 
observed as Trinity Sunday till much later), were espe- 
cially dedicated to the commemoration of saints. 3 The 
congregation kept a vigil the night before, or very early 
before dawn on the Saints' day itself. The vigil con- 
sisted of psalms, hymns, and prayers, and was followed 
early in the day by a full service, when, in addition to the 
ordinary lessons of the day, the acts or passions of the 
saint or martyr were read. St. Augustine permitted his 
people to sit during the reading of them because they 
were often of great length. Pope Gelasius forbad them 
to be read because they were so seldom authentic. 4 The 
martyries were generally outside the city walls, not always 
built over the grave of the saint, but close to it ; in which 
ease the congregation assembled at the grave first, and 
walked in procession from it to the church, singing hymns 
as they went. There can be no doubt that Chrysostom 
believed iu the intercessory power of departed saints, and 
encouraged the invocation of their intercession. e They 
were nearer to the Divine ear, and by virtue of their 
glorious deaths had justly obtained more confidence in 
making their requests to God than had the inhabitants 
of earth.' He implores Christians not to resort for medical 
assistance to Jews, who were the enemies of Christ, but 
to seek aid from His friends the saints and martyrs, who 

1 Euseb. de Vita Constant. 1. iv. All Saints'- Day. See Bingham, b. ss. 

2 Chrys. hom. xl. in Jnvent. c. 7, sect. 14. 

3 Horn, de Csemet. et Cruce, vol. ii. * Aug. hom. xxvi. Gelas. Decret. 
c. i. in Ascens. Christi, vol. ii., and de in Grab. vcl. i. The word 'legend' 
Sanct. Martyr, vol. ii. p. 705. The is perhaps derived from these Acts of 
Sunday corresponding to the present the Saints, which were to be read, 
Trinity Sunday was kept as a kind of ' legends.' 



Cn. XII. ] HOMILIES OX MARTYRS. 187 

had much confidence in addressing God. 1 At the close 
of his homily on the festival of two soldiers who had been 
beheaded by Julian for obstinate adherence to Chris- 
tianity, he says : ' Let us constantly visit them, touch 
their shrine, and with faith embrace their reliques, that we 
may derive some blessing therefrom ; for like soldiers who 
converse freely with their sovereign when they display 
their wounds, so these, bearing their heads in their hands, 
are easily able to effect what they desire at the court of 
the King of Heaven.' 2 So, again, in the homily on Ber- 
nice and Prosdoke : ' let us fall down before their reliques 
.... let us embrace their shrines : not only on their 
festival, but at other times, let us resort to them and 
invoke them to become our protectors ; for they can use 
much boldness of speech when dead, more, indeed, than 
when they were alive, for now they bear in their bodies 
the marks of Jesus Christ .... let us therefore procure 
for ourselves, through them, favour from God. 5 3 Thus 
the saint is to be appealed to as a kind of friend at court, 
who will present petitions, and use his influence to ob- 
tain a favourable answer from the Monarch ; but the 
further step of invoking saints as the direct dispensers 
of spiritual and other benefits had not yet been taken. 
The feeling of the Church of Smyrna towards their be- 
loved martyr and Bishop Polycarp, as expressed in a.d. 
160 to the Church of Philomelium, still represented the 
general state of feeling in the Church. 4 The Jews and 
other malignants had suggested, when the remains of 
Polycarp had been earnestly asked for, that the Christians 
intended to worship him ; and ' this they said, being 
ignorant that we should never be able to desert Christ, 
or worship any other Being. For Him, being the Son of 

1 .Adv. Judaeos viii. c. 7.' 1 3 I>e Bern, et Prosd. vol.ii. p. 640. 

2 Horn, in Juvent. et Maxim, vol. ii. * See the letter in Euseb. 1. iv. c. 15 
p. 576. 



188 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XII. 

God, we adore, but the martyrs, as the disciples and imi- 
tators of the Lord, we love with a deserved affection ; 
desiring to become partners and fellow disciples with 
them.' The language of St. Augustine and St. Chry- 
sostom thoroughly corresponds to that in the passage just 
cited. ' Our religion,' says Augustine, e consists not in 
the worship of dead men ; because if they lived piously 
they are not considered likely to desire that kind of 
honour ; but would wish Him to be worshipped by us 
through whose illumination they rejoice to have us 
partners with them in their merit. They are therefore 
to be honoured for the sake of imitation, not to be 
worshipped as a religious act. 5 l And in another place : 
6 Christian people celebrate the memory of martyrs with 
religious solemnity, to stimulate imitation, to become 
partners in their merits, and to be assisted by their 
prayers ; but in doing this we never offer sacrifice to a 
martyr, but only to Him who is the God of martyrs.' 8 
A multitude of passages might be cited from Chry- 
sostom's homilies on Saints' Festivals, in which he pas- 
sionately exhorts to the imitation and emulation of their 
noble lives and glorious deaths, and dwells on the great 
advantages to the Church arising from these solemn 
commemorations. ' The very memory of the martyrs 
wrought upon the minds of men in confirming them 
against the assaults of wicked spirits, and delivering 
them from impure and unseemly thoughts ; ' . . . e the 
death of the martyrs was the exhortation of the faithful, 
the confidence of Churches, the confirmation of Chris- 
tianity, . . . the reproach of devils, the condemnation of 
Satan, a consolation in affliction, a motive to patience, 
encouragement to fortitude, the root, fountain, mother of 
all which is good.' 3 

1 Aug. de Vera Eelig. c. 55. 2 Aug. cont. Faustum, 1. xx. c. 21. 

3 Do Droside, vol. ii. p. 685. 



Ch. XH.] VENERATION OF SAINTS. 189 

But if no inculcations to direct worship of saints are to 
be found in Chrysostom, it is evident that no small virtue 
was ascribed by popular faith, (and, in his opinion, justly) 
to their remains. 1 Miracles of healing were wrought, or 
supposed to be wrought, at their tombs ; demons were 
expelled by the application of their ashes to the persons 
possessed. It is obvious that, where such a belief has 
taken possession of the popular mind, prayer will very 
soon be addressed to the saint for the direct bestowal of 
those advantages which are supposed to be derivable from 
his reliques. Pilgrimages were fashionable in all parts of 
Christendom. Prefects and generals, when they visited 
Rome, hastened to pay their devotion at the tombs of the 
tentmaker and fisherman ; journeys were made into Arabia 
to visit the supposed site of Job's dunghill. 2 

Two different causes seem to have led on the mind of 
the Church to an increasing veneration of martyrs. First, 
the Church owed to them a real debt ; the heroic stedfast- 
ness of their deaths contributed much to promote and 
establish Christianity. Chrysostom observes how the 
sight of the aged Ignatius going to die at Rome for his 
faith — going not only with calmness, but even with 
alacrity — mightily confirmed the souls of the disciples in 
the several cities through which he passed. 3 * As irriga- 
tion made gardens fruitful, so the blood of martyrs gave 
drink to the Churches.' 4 Honour, affection, veneration, 
easily pass into actual adoration. 

Secondly, there is a natural desire to bridge over the 
chasm which divides the human nature from the Divine, 

1 Flavian caused the remains of the remains of less saintly, if not here- 
some much- revered saints who were tical, characters. — Horn, in Ascen. 
buried beneath the pavement of the 2 De S. Babyla. c. 12. De Stat, 
church to be taken up, and placed in i. 2, and viii. 2. Quod Christus sit 
another separate grave, because the Deus, c. 7. De Stat. v. 1. 
people were distressed that the re- 3 In S. Ignat. Mart. c. 4. 
liques of such venerated personages 4 In Juvent. et Maxim, c. 1. 
should repose in the same vaults with 



190 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Cn. XII. 

and earth from heaven, by enlisting the agency of some 
intermediate being. In its earliest conflicts with heresy, 
theology was chiefly engaged in zealously defending the 
pure divinity of Christ — his co-equal, co-eternal power 
and majesty with the Father. The more He was with- 
drawn into a less accessible region of exalted deity, the 
more this need of the half-deified human interpositor 
was felt, and worked itself out at last into a distinct 
article of faith. 

Some of those abuses of saints' days, which we are apt 
to associate more especially with mediseval times, were far 
from uncommon in the days of Chrysostom. The day 
which had begun in fasting, and was preceded by a vigil, 
too often terminated in a very carnal kind of revelry. 
e Ye have turned night into day by your holy vigils : do 
not turn day into night by drunkenness, surfeiting, and 
lascivious songs ; let not anyone see you misbehaving in 
an inn on your return home.' l A custom prevailed of 
holding a c love-feast ' at or near the tomb of the saint, 
which was furnished by the oblations of the wealthier 
devotees. Chrysostom on one occasion urges his con- 
gregation to attend such a sacred banquet when they 
dispersed after service, instead of hurrying off to the 
diabolical entertainments at Daphne : ' the sight of the 
martyr, standing as it were near their table, would pre- 
vent their pleasure from running to excess.' 2 But there 
is abundant evidence in other contemporary writers that 
these meetings too often did degenerate into scenes of 
mere conviviality and intemperance. Augustine speaks 
of those who ' made themselves drunk at the commemora- 
tion of martyrs.' * Ambrose prohibited all such feasts in 
the churches of Milan ; and Augustine cited his example 
to obtain a similar prohibition from Aurelius, the Primate 

1 Horn, in Martyres, vol. ii. p. 663. 3 Aug. cont. Faustuni, 1. xx. c. 21. 

2 In Sanct, Jul. vol. ii. p. 673. 



Ch. Xn.] ABUSE OF SAINTS' DAYS. 191 

of Carthage. 1 Basil reprobates a growing custom of 
trading near the martyries on festival days, under pre- 
tence of making a better provision for the feasts, to which 
we may fairly, perhaps, attribute the universal custom in 
Christendom of holding fairs on saints' days. 2 As they 
were in mediaeval times, so in Roman Catholic countries 
at the present day, the booths of the fair are in close con- 
tiguity with the walls of the church, and they who attend 
mass in the morning, as well as those who do not attend 
it at all, may disgrace themselves by drunkenness and all 
kinds of folly in the evening. Such abuses are an in- 
evitable consequence of keeping up the observance of days 
after the real enthusiasm for the person or cause which 
they commemorate has begun to grow, or has altogether 
grown, cold. Little may ever have been really known 
about the saint whose memory is celebrated, and that 
little ceases to speak with any meaning to the minds of 
later generations. The service, which was once a living 
reality, becomes a cold and empty form, or the place of 
religious enthusiasm is supplied by some form of sensual 
excitement. Crowds of peasants will not fail to be at- 
tracted to a church which blazes with thousands of 
candles arranged in fantastic patterns, and which rings 
with noisy sensational music : they probably place a 
superstitious faith in the tutelary power of their patron : 
but how different is all this from the hearty, genuine, 
reasonable devotion of more enlightened worshippers to 
the Lord Himself, and the less strong but more real 
respect and honour paid by such to his day ! It is 
surely one among many proofs of the deep and lasting 
hold of Christ's character upon the mind of men, of the 
applicability of its influence to all times and places, and 
of its Divine superiority to that of all His followers, how- 

1 Aug. Confess. 1. vi. 2. Epist. 64, ad Aurel. Cone. Carth. iii. c. 30. 
2 Basil Eegul. Major, qusest. 40. 



192 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XII. 

ever exalted, tliat abuses which have accompanied the 
commeniorations of saints have never extended in the 
same degree to His day. 1 

As already remarked, Chrysostom was prevented this 
year by illness from attending the festivals of saints and 
martyrs, which fell very thickly between Easter and 
Whitsnn Day. He commences his homily preached on 
the Sunday before Ascension Day with an allusion to his 
recent sickness, and tells his congregation 'that, though 
absent in body from their sacred festivities, he had been 
present and rejoiced with them in spirit ; and now, though 
he had not fully recovered his health, he could not refrain 
from meeting his beloved and much-longed-for flock 
again. He was the more anxious also to occupy his 
accustomed place on that day, because large numbers of 
the rustic population from the neighbouring country had 
flocked into the city and attended the services of the 
church. They spoke a different dialect, but they were 
one with the Christian inhabitants of the town in the 
soundness of their faith ; and their habits of simple piety, 
pure morality, and honourable industry, put to shame the 
dissolute manners and indolence which prevailed in the 
city. Their peasant clergy were a noble race of men ; 
they might be seen one while yoking their oxen to the 
plough, and marking out furrows in the soil ; another 
while mounting the pulpit and ploughing the hearts of 
their flock ; now cutting away thorns from the ground 
with a sickle, now cleansing men's minds from sin by 
their discourse : for they were not ashamed of hard work, 
like the people of the city, but of idleness, knowing that 
it was idleness which taught men vice, and had been from 
the beginning to those who loved it the schoolmaster of 
all iniquity. Though little skilled, by training, in reason- 
ing or rhetoric, they proved more than a match for those 

1 See Dr. Hessey's ' Bampton Lectures on Sunday.' 



Ch. xtt.] praise of peasant clergy. 193 

counterfeit philosophers who paraded themselves about 
the streets with their professional cloak, staff, and beard, 
but who could not give any satisfactory information on 
the subjects upon which they expended such, a lieap of 
words, — as the immortality of the soul, the creation of the 
world, Divine Providence, a future world and judgment. 
The rustic pastor, being simply and firmly persuaded of 
the truth of these things, could instruct men with clear- 
ness and decision about them ; he could give solid matter, 
the others only polished language, like a man who should 
have a sword with a silver ornamented hilt, but a weak 
blade. Their wives were not luxurious creatures, covering 
themselves with unguents, paints, and dyes, but simple, 
sober, quiet matrons ; which, increased the influence of 
the pastor over the people committed to his charge, and 
caused the precept of St. Paul, " having food and raiment, 
let us be therewith content," to be strictly observed 1 
among them.' 

1 Whether it was a regular custom the first great influx for trade and 
for the rustic population to visit An- legal business after the recent suspen- 
tioch on this day, or whether it was sion of all business, does not appear. 



O 



194 LITE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XUJ. 



CHAPTEK XIII. 

SURVEY OF EVENTS BETWEEN A.D. 387 AND A.D. 397 AMBROSE AND 

THEODOSIUS REVOLT OF ARBOGASTES DEATH OF THEODOSIUS 

THE MINISTERS OF ARCADIUS RUFINUS AND EUTROPIUS. 

Some account has now been given of the most remarkable 
among the homilies delivered bj Chrysostom during the 
first year of his priesthood ; not only because to follow 
the course of the Christian seasons through the cycle of 
one year seemed the most convenient method of giving 
specimens of his ordinary style of preaching, but also 
because these first efforts were seldom if ever surpassed 
in power and beauty by his later productions. A more 
extensive survey of his theology, under its several heads, 
is reserved for the concluding chapter ; and the remainder 
of the ten years during which he resided at Antioch being 
uneventful as regards his life, it will be profitable to fill 
up the gap by taking a glance at the world outside his 
present sphere. Some knowledge of contemporary events 
and men is indeed necessary to a just appreciation of his 
position and conduct, when he is summoned to occupy a 
more public and exalted station. 

It is a melancholy scene which meets the eye. The 
mighty fabric of the Empire crumbles, perhaps, more 
rapidly in this decade than in any previous period of equal 
length ; like an old man whose constitution is thoroughly 
broken. 

Effeminate luxury in the civilised population is matched 
by the coarse ferocity of the barbarians who hem it in or 
mingle with it, and the new barbarian patch agrees ill 



Cu. XIIL] AMBROSE AND CHRYSOSTOM. 195 

with, the old garment, which is not strong enough to bear 
it. The historians' records are full of tales of murder, 
massacre, treachery, venality, corruption, everywhere and 
of all kinds. There is no national greatness, but great 
men move across the stage : Theodosius himself, generous, 
just though passionate, vigorous when roused to a sense 
of emergency; the last Emperor who deserved the name of 
' great ; ' Ambrose, the intrepid advocate of religious duty 
to God and man, the champion of the rights of Church 
and hierarchy ; Stilicho, the skilful commander of armies 
and able guardian of the Empire after the death of Theo- 
dosius; Alaric, the very type of Gothic force; Rufinus and 
Eutropius, the clever, scheming adventurers, destitute of 
all nobility, who in a degenerate court contrive to raise 
themselves to the pinnacle of power, and are suddenly 
toppled headlong from it. 

The most commanding public character in the West at 
this time was, and for some years had been, Ambrose, 
Archbishop of Milan. Disliked but feared by the Arian 
court, respected and beloved by the people, he fought in 
some respects a similar battle to that in which Chrysostom 
was afterwards engaged in the East, and amidst many 
differences there are also many parallels in the character 
and history of the two men : the same fearless courage to 
speak what they believed to be God's truth in the face of 
royalty itself animated both; in both cases was' it re- 
warded by virulent persecution ; both had to contend with 
an imperious, passionate woman ; both were protected from 
her fury by the populace keeping guard night and day 
before the walls of the church. In a.d. 384, Ambrose had 
been summoned before a royal council, and in the presence 
of the young Emperor Valentinian II. and the Queen- 
mother Justina, had been commanded to surrender the 
Portian Basilica for the use of the Arians. But Ambrose 
had replied undauntedly, that not one inch of ground which 

o 2 



196 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHEYSOSTOM. [Ch. Xm. 

had been consecrated to truth would he concede to error. 1 
For more than two years Ambrose maintained his ground 
against all the stratagems of his adversaries. On one 
occasion they seized the Portian Basilica, but dared not 
hold it in the face of the infuriated people. Messengers 
from court endeavoured to maintain before the archbishop 
that the Emperor had a right to dispose of the churches as 
he pleased, but the argument was contemptuously dis- 
missed as a base sophistry. ( What ! ' he cried ; e the 
Emperor has no right to violate the house of a private 
individual, and think you that he may do violence to the 
house of God ? No ! let him take all that is mine — my 
land, my money, though these belong to the poor ; if he 
seeks my patrimony, let him seize it ; if my person, I will 
present it to him : but the church it is not lawful for me 
to surrender or for him to accept.' 2 Force was not more 
successful than argument. Soldiers were sent to dislodge 
him and his congregation from one of the basilicas, but 
instead of drawing their swords they fell on their knees, 
and declared that they came not to attack the archbishop 
but to pray with him. The effect of an edict was tried in 
a.d. 386, 3 which permitted free worship to all who pro- 
fessed the creed of Rimini (an Arian creed), and rendered 
liable to capital punishment any who should impede the 
action of the edict, as offenders against the imperial 
majesty. Under shelter of this edict, the Portian Basilica 
was again demanded, but Ambrose refused to recognise 
such an edict, which militated against his sense of duty 
to a higher power. ' God forbid that I should yield the 
heritage of Jesus Christ. Naboth would not part with 
the vineyard of his fathers to Ahab, and should I sur- 
render the house of God ? the heritage of Dionysius, who 
died in exile for the faith; of Eustorgius the confessor; of 

1 Ambr. Ep. xx. 2 Ibid. p. 854. 

3 Sozomen, vil. 13. Ruf. ii. 16. 



Cii. XIII.] AMBROSE AND AUGUSTINE. 197 

Miroclus, and all the faithful bishops which were before 
me?" But though Ambrose disobeyed, the penalties of 
the edict were not enforced upon him. An order of 
banishment was served upon him, expressed in vague 
terms : ' depart from the city, and go where you please.' 
But Ambrose did not please to go anywhere, and remained 
where he was, moving up and down the city, and offi- 
ciating as usual in the churches, using in his sermons the 
same Scripture parallels to indicate the Queen-mother, 
' Herodias,' and ' Jezebel,' which Chrysostom afterwards 
applied to the Empress Eudoxia. He preaches day after 
day, guarded by his faithful flock, who during passion-tide 
suffered him not to quit the cathedral for fear of violence 
to his person. Amongst that crowd, touched by the spell 
of the chants and hymns which Ambrose taught the 
people 2 to beguile the tediousness of their watch, and im- 
pressed by his pungent and decisive doctrine, are two 
remarkable persons, mother and son, Monica and St. Au- 
gustine. Monica is among the most faithful in watching, 
the most earnest in praying for the welfare of the bishop 
and the church. Augustine is about thirty-two years old ; he 
has been in many places and passed through many phases 
of thought. He has subdued the vices and follies which 
stained his youth ; he has shaken off the errors of Mani- 
cheism which for a time enthralled him ; he has been a 
teacher of rhetoric at Tagaste, at Carthage, at Eome, and 
Symmachus has now obtained for him a professional chair 
at Milan. But Pagan literature is losing its hold npon 
him. Plato no longer fascinates him equally with Holy 
Scripture. He is gravitating steadily towards Christianity, 

1 Ambr. Ep. xxi. Sermo cont. Aux. ii. 19. Basil referato it as a common 
p. 868. practice, but Ambrose is generally 

2 Ignatius is said to have first intro- allowed to have introduced it to the 
duced antiphonal singing at Antioch, "Western Church, and on this occasion 
Flavian and Diodorus to have estab- v. Suicer. 

lished it there. Socr. v. 8. Theod. 



198 LIFE AND TB1ES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Cs. XHI. 

and in another year, April 387, just about the time that 
Chrysostom is delivering his homilies on the Statues, he 
will crown his mother's hopes by making a public con- 
fession of his faith, and receiving baptism at the hands of 
Ambrose. 1 

One more effort was made to win the contest, this 
time through diplomacy. The court proposed that the 
question under dispute should be settled by arbitration, 
the judges to be selected by Ambrose and Auxentius the 
Arian bishop. But Ambrose would not accept the arbi- 
trators nominated by Auxentius, four of whom were 
Pagans and one a catechumen. In the name of himself 
and the clergy of his province he denied the validity of 
the tribunal. In an address to the people the same lofty 
tone of independence was maintained. 'He would pay 
deference to the Emperor, but never yield in things 
unlawful : the Emperor was '< in the Church, not above 
it." ' * So he remained master of the field. The unfinished 
basilica, which had been the prize contended for, was con- 
secrated by Ambrose with great pomp, and the joy of the 
people was completed by the discovery of the martyrs' 
skeletons beneath the pavement, pronounced to be those 
of Gervasius and Protasius, who had suffered in the perse- 
cution of Diocletian. When demoniacs shuddered on 
being placed in proximity to these reliques, and a blind 
man was cured by the application to his eyes of a hand- 
kerchief previously in contact with these same reliques, 
the crown was put on the triumph of Ambrose ; the 
people were more firmly convinced than ever that his 
cause was the cause of God. 8 

He was so indisputably the ablest man of the time in the 
West, that, when danger impended over the state, the 
very court which persecuted him turned to him to rescue 
the country. Threatening messages came from the court 

1 Aug. Conf. ix. 7, and preceding 2 Arabr. Ep. xxi. 

books. s - Anibr. Ep. xxii. Aug. Conf. ix. 7. 



Cn. XIII. ] AMBROSE AND MAXIMUS. 199 

of Maxinius at Treves. Ambrose was the ambassador 
selected to go and pacify or intimidate the tyrant. Maxi- 
mus was a Catholic, and a ruthless persecutor of those 
whom he deemed heretics, especially Priscillianists ; yet 
Ambrose did not hesitate to denounce his cruelty to 
brethren who were Christians, however erring, as well as 
his disloyal attitude towards Yalentinian. The embassy 
was unsuccessful, but the dignity of the ambassador and 
of the court which he represented was fully maintained. 
The artifices by which another ambassador, the Syrian 
Domninus, was blinded to the preparations of Maximus 
for the invasion of Italy ; the passage of the Alps by 
the usurper, the flight of Justina and her son to Thessa- 
lonica; the prompt march of Theodosius to the succour 
of Italy, and his complete victory over Maximus, near 
Aquileia, — belong to the secular historian ; but the con- 
nection between Theodosius and Ambrose will be related 
here more in detail. 

There is no account of the first meeting between the 
two great characters of the day — the Emperor and the 
archbishop. That Ambrose immediately exercised in- 
fluence over the imperial mind is inferable from the mild- 
ness of the measures by which the embers of the late 
revolution were extinguished. No bloody executions took 
place ; no rigorous search for rebels was made ; the mother 
and daughter of Maximus, who had been himself beheaded, 
were provided with a maintenance. Ambrose, in one of his 
letters, thanks the Emperor for granting liberty, at his 
request, to several exiles and prisoners, and for remitting 
the sentence of death to others. 

Theodosius could be generous to enemies, and was 
the zealous friend of catholic Christianity, but he was .a 
strict punisher of any violations of civil order, even when 
the offenders were Christian. The people of Callinicum 
in Osrhoene, instigated by the bishop and some fanatical 
monks, had set fire to a Jewish synagogue, and to 



200 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHEYSOSTOM. [Ch. XIII. 

a church of the sect of Yalentinians. The Emperor 
directed the Count of the East to punish the offenders,, 
and commanded the bishop to restore the buildings at 
the expense of the Church. But the extension of such 
favour to heretics was in the sight of Ambrose intoler- 
able. It might, indeed, have been wrong to disturb 
civil order, but it was far more wrong to reinstate error : 
to order Christians to rebuild a place of worship for those 
who set Christ at nought was, in his eyes, simple pro- 
fanity. He expressed his opinion to the Emperor in a 
letter. It is the first great instance of the Church dis- 
tinctly claiming a pre-eminence of authority superseding 
that of civil law. ' If I am not worthy to be listened to 
by you, how can I be worthy to transmit, as your priest, 
your vows and prayers to God ? ' Basing on this ground 
his right to speak out his mind, he declares that ' if the 
Bishop of Callinicum obeyed the imperial command, he 
would be guilty of culpable weakness, and the Emperor 
would be responsible for it. If he refused to obey, the 
Emperor could execute his will by force of arms only; the 
labarum, perhaps the standard of Christ, would be em- 
ployed to rebuild a temple where Christ would be denied. 
What a monstrous in consistency ! ' The last words which 
it contained were, c I have endeavoured to make myself 
heard in the palace ; do not place me under the necessity 
of making myself heard in the church : ' but, the letter 
was unanswered, and so Ambrose put his threat into exe- 
cution. He preached in Milan in the presence of the 
Emperor ; ' he compared the Christian priest to the 
prophets of the Old Testament, whose duty it was to 
proclaim God's message to the king himself, as Nathan did 
to David. As the Israelites were warned not to say when 
they entered the land of Canaan, " My virtue has deserved 
these good things, but the Lord God has given them," 
so the Emperor should remember that he was what he was 



Cn. XIJL] AMBROSE AND TIIEODOSIUS. 201 

by the mercy of God. Therefore, he ought to ]ove the 
body of Christ, the Church — to wash, kiss, and anoint her 
feet, that all the dwelling* where Christ reposes, might be 
filled with the odour ; that is, he ought to honour his 
least disciples, and pardon their faults ; every one of the 
members of the Christian body was necessary to it, and 
ought to receive his protection.' 

Having uttered such words, he descended from the altar 
steps. Theodosius perceived that the archbishop had taken 
up his parable against him, and as Ambrose was going 
out of the church he stopped him, saying, ' Is it I whom 
you have made the subject of your discourse?' 6 1 have 
said that which I deemed useful for you,' Ambrose replied. 
' I perceive it is of the synagogue that you would speak,' 
rejoined Theodosius. 'I own that my commands have 
been a little severe, but I have already softened them, and 
these monks are troublesome men.' ' I am going to offer 
the sacrifice,' said Ambrose, 6 enable me to do so without 
fear for you; deliver me from the load which oppresses 
my spirit.' ' It shall be so,' responded the Emperor ; 
' my orders shall be mitigated ; I give you my promise.' 
But Ambrose was not satisfied with so vague an assurance. 
' Suppress the whole matter,' he said ; 6 swear it to me, 
and, on your sworn promise, I proceed to offer the sacri- 
fice.' The Emperor swore ; Ambrose celebrated mass ; 
4 and never,' said he, in a letter written the day after to his 
sister, ' did I experience such sensible marks of the presence 
of God in prayer.' 1 

In the spring of a.d. 389, Theodosius made his triumphal 
entry into Rome, accompanied by Yalentinian and his own 
son Honorius, a boy of ten. His arrival was preceded by 
two popular enactments ; one a decree, renouncing for 
himself and family all bequests made by codicils — striking 
a blow at a vicious custom which had long prevailed, of 
1 Ambr. Ep. xl. and xli. 



202 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Cn. XEU. 

bribing imperial favour for particular families, by be- 
queathing large legacies to the reigning sovereign. By 
heathen emperors these bequests had been sought with 
great cupidity ; sick or old men were sometimes threatened 
with an acceleration of death, unless they satisfied the 
royal expectations in this way. The other, no less popu- 
lar decree was, to abolish the custom by which royal 
couriers, when conveying news of victory, exacted dona- 
tions from the villages through which they passed. The 
victory of Theodosius over Maximus was the first which 
had been gratuitously proclaimed along the route to 
Borne ; and the people greeted the Emperor as he made 
his progress to the capital with all the warmer welcome 
in consequence. 1 

Rome had at this period scarcely recovered from the 
ferment into which society had been thrown by the three 
years' residence of Jerome, a.d. 382-385. His denuncia- 
tions of clerical luxury ; his cutting satires on the vices 
and follies of the laity ; his allurement to monastic life of 
some of the wealthiest and noblest of the Roman ladies, 
had stirred up a tumult of feeling for the most part ad- 
verse to him. But Theodosius prudently abstained from 
interfering with the religious debates of Rome. In Con- 
stantinople he was the absolute sovereign ; in Rome he 
desired to appear simply as the successful general and the 
foremost citizen. He assumed no imperial or Asiatic splen- 
dour; he exhibited no fastidious abhorrence of statues, 
temples, and other remnants of Paganism. Symmachus, 
the most eminent Pagan citizen, was cordially received, 
and gratified by the promise of consulship. The result of 
this amiable and* moderate conduct was that some of the 
most powerful Roman families embraced the faith of the 
Emperor. 

a.d. 390. But the generosity which Theodosius had 

1 Cod. Theod. iv. v. 4, 1. 2. De Broglie, vol. vi. p. 257. 



Cn. XIII. ] SEDITION AT THESSALONICA. 203 

manifested towards the people of Antioch, his moderation 
after the defeat of Maxim us, and during his triumphal 
residence in Rome, was presently stained by one of those 
paroxysms of anger to which he was occasionally subject. 
The intercession of Flavian had averted any practical 
expression of such emotion in the case of the sedition of 
Antioch; the authority of Ambrose, too late to prevent 
the crime, was exercised to exact penance for the cruel 
vengeance executed on the people of Thessalonica. 

Botheric, the governor of Thessalonica, had imprisoned 
a favourite charioteer for attempting to commit a disgust- 
ing crime. The people, passionately attached to the races 
of the circus, demanded his release on a certain day to 
take part in the contest. The governor refused, and the 
people then broke out into rebellion ; the tumult was with 
difficulty quelled by the troops, and not before Botheric 
had been mortally wounded, several other officers torn 
to pieces, and their mangled remains dragged through 
the streets. The irritation of the Emperor, on hearing of 
this barbarous violence, was extreme ; and all the more so, 
that of Thessalonica he could have expected better things. 
It did not contain, like Antioch, Home, or Alexandria, a 
large mixed population, but one almost exclusively Chris- 
tian, and for the most part even Catholic. The city was 
the scene of his early triumphs and frequently honoured 
by his visits. It is possible that Ambrose may have 
pushed his exhortations to clemency too far in the first 
glow of the Emperor's resentment. At any rate, the 
counsel of those rivals or enemies of Ambrose, who re- 
presented that the affair belonged purely to civil govern- 
ment, and should be decided independently of all 
clerical interference, prevailed. Rufinus, the flattering, 
heartless courtier, persuaded Theodosius that a public 
offence oi such magnitude deserved the most merciless 
punishment which could be inflicted. Orders were issued 



204 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHEYSOSTOM. [Ch. XHI. 

to the officials at Thessalordca to assemble the populace, as 
if for a fete, in the circus, and then to let in the troops upon 
them. This barbarous mandate was too faithfully executed. 
The unsuspecting victims crowded into their favourite 
place of amusement ; at a given signal the soldiers rushed 
in, and in the course of two or three hours the ground was 
strewn with some 7,000 corpses of men, women, and chil- 
dren. 1 The horror of the people of Milan was only equalled 
by their astonishment. Was it possible that he who had 
displayed such magnanimity and Christian moderation 
could be guilty of an act which savoured of the most 
heathen treachery and ferocity? When the Emperor 
returned from Home, Ambrose withdrew from Milan into 
the country, and thence wrote to him a letter expressing 
his horror at the recent massacre ; exhorting him to the 
deepest repentance and humiliation as the only hope of 
obtaining mercy from God, and declaring that he could 
not celebrate mass again in his presence. The mode by 
which the Emperor was to expiate his guilt is not indi- 
cated in this epistle, and he presented himself soon after- 
wards at the doors of the cathedral church with his usual 
royal retinue. But he was confronted by Ambrose in his 
pontifical robes, who with flashing eyes expressed his 
astonishment at such audacity, and barred the entrance 
with his person. £ I see, Emperor, you are ignorant of 
the flagrancy of the murder which you have perpetrated. 
Perhaps your unlimited power blinds you to your guilt, 
and obscures your reason. Yet consider your frail and 
mortal nature ; think of the dust from which you were 
formed, and to which you will return, and beneath the 
splendid veil of your purple recognise the infirmity of the 
flesh which it covers. You rule over men who are your 
brethren by nature, and by service to a common King, the 
Creator of all things. How then will you darS to plant 

1 Soz. vii. 25. Theod. v. 17. Ambr. Ep. li. De Broglie, vi. 302, &c. 



Ok. XIIL] PENANCE OF THEODOSIUS. 205 

your feet in His sanctuary, and elevate your hands to- 
wards Him, all dripping as they are with the blood of men 
unjustly slain ? How will you take into your hands the 
sacred body of the Lord, or dare to put His precious blood 
to those lips, which by a word of anger have spilt the 
blood of so many innocent victims? Withdraw, then, and 
add not a fresh crime to those with which you are already 
burdened.' The Emperor returned, conscience-stricken 
and weeping, to his palace. For eight months no inter- 
course took place between him and Ambrose. Christmas 
approached ; exclusion from the church at such a season 
seemed insupportable to the Emperor. Rufinus found him 
one day dissolved in tears. * The church of God,' he 
cried, ' is open to the slave and the beggar, but to me it 
is closed, and with it the gates of heaven ; for I remember 
the words of the Lord, " Whatsoever ye shall bind on 
earth shall be bound in heaven." Rufinus sought to 
console him : ( I will hasten to Ambrose, and force him to 
release you from this bond.' 'No,' said the Emperor, 
6 you will not persuade Ambrose to violate divine law from 
any fear of imperial power.' Rufinus, however, sought an 
interview with the archbishop ; but Ambrose spurned him 
indignantly from him, as being the chief counsellor of the 
late massacre. Rufinus informed him that the Emperor 
was approaching. < If he comes,' said the prelate, ' I will 
repel him from the vestibule of the church.' The minister 
returned to the Emperor discomfited, and advised him to 
abstain from visiting the church ; but Theodosius had 
subdued all pride, and replied that he would now go and 
submit to any humiliation which Ambrose might see 
proper to impose. He advanced to the church. Perceiving 
the archbishop in the exterior court or atrium, he cried, 
' I have come ; deliver me from my sins.' ' What mad- 
ness,' replied Ambrose, ( has prompted you to violate the 
sanctuary, and to trample on divine law ? ' ' I ask for my 



206 LIFE AND TBIES OF ST, CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. Xin. 

deliverance/ said the humbled monarch ; ' shut not the 
door which God has opened to all penitents/ ' And where 
is your penitence ? ' said the bishop ; ( show me yonr reme- 
dies for healing yonr wounds.' ' It is for you to show 
them to me,' Theodosius replied; 'for me to accept them.' 
Once more Ambrose had gained the day. He could pre- 
scribe his own terms. First, he required that the recur- 
rence of a similar crime should be guarded against by a 
decree which should interpose a delay of thirty days be- 
tween a sentence of confiscation or death and the execu- 
tion of it. At the expiration of this period the sentence 
was to be presented to the Emperor for final reconsidera- 
tion. Theodosius consented, ordered the law to be drawn 
up, and subscribed it with his own hand. He was then 
admitted within the walls, but in deeply penitential guise ; 
stripped of imperial ornaments, prostrate on the pavement, 
beating his breast, tearing his hair, and crying aloud, 
' My soul cleave th unto the dust, quicken thou me accord- 
ing to thy word.' So he remained during the first portion 
of the Liturgy. When the offertory began, he rose, ad- 
vanced within the choir to present his offering, and was 
about to resume the place which at Constantinople he 
usually. occupied — a seat in the midst of the clergy, in the 
more elevated portion of the choir. But Ambrose deter- 
mined, by taking advantage of the Emperor's present 
humiliation, to put a stop to this custom. An archdeacon 
stepped up to Theodosius, and informed him that no lay- 
man might remain in the choir during the celebration. 
The submissive Emperor withdrew outside the rails. 
When he had returned to Constantinople, he was invited 
by Nectarius, the archbishop, to occupy his accustomed 
chair in the choir. ' No ! ' replied Theodosius, with a sigh; 
6 1 have learned at Milan the insignificance of an Emperor 
in the Church, and the difference between him and a 
bishop. But no one here tells me the truth. I know not 



Cn. XI1L] STRIFE ABOUT THE SEE OF ANTIOCH. 207 

any bishop save Ambrose who deserves the name.' ! He 
had hit the truth. The difference between the conduct of 
Ambrose and of Nectarius symbolised the difference be- 
tween the character of the "Western and Eastern Church 
generally ; the one stern, commanding, jealous of any 
encroachment of the civil power ; the other, subservient, 
submissive, courtier-like ; the one aspiring and advancing, 
the other receding and decadent. Chrysostom would have 
told him the truth ; but Chrysostom, in his uncompromis- 
ing and fearless honesty of purpose and speech is such a 
grand exception among the patriarchs of Constantinople, 
that he proves the general rule. Even Flavian had only 
supplicated mercy from the Emperor ; Ambrose com- 
manded it. 

On one subject, the deference of Theodosius for the 
opinion of Ambrose caused him some embarrassment. 
Ambrose, in common with the other Western prelates, had 
recognised Paulinus as Bishop of Antioch — the priest of 
the Eustathian party who had been consecrated by Lucifer 
of Cagliari ; and he now acknowledged Evagrius, his suc- 
cessor. Theodosius was distracted between his friendship 
for Flavian, the rival of Evagrius, and for Ambrose. 
Flavian was summoned to court. The Emperor implored 
him to go to Eome and justify his claims before the Pope ; 
but Flavian refused. At the suggestion of Ambrose, the 
Western Bishops assembled in council at Capua, and there 
delegated the decision to Theophilus, Patriarch of Alex- 
andria. Once more Flavian was summoned to court, and 
advised to submit to the arbitration of Theophilus ; but 
he was still intractable. ' Take my bishopric at once, and 
give it to whom you please ; but I will submit neither my 
honour nor my faith to the judgment of my equals.' Nearly 
eighteen months were consumed in these negotiations. 
The West grew impatient. The letters of Ambrose took 

1 Theod. v. 18. Be Broglie, vol. vi. 302 et seq. 



208 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XHI. 

a severer tone : ' Flavian has something to fear ; that is 
why he avoids examination. Will he place himself out- 
side the Church, the communion of Rome, and intercourse 
with his brethren 9 ' The strife was mercifully broken off 
by the sudden death of Evagrius, before he had time to 
designate a successor ; and the wound was salved, though 
not healed. That final good work was destined to be 
accomplished by Chrysostom. 1 

a.d. 392. Only a few years more of life remained for 
Theodosius, and his reign was occupied at the end as at 
the beginning, by quelling rebellion in the West. When 
he returned to the East, in a.d. 391, after the defeat of 
Maximus, he had generously left the youthful Yalentinian 
in full possession of all his hereditary dominions, which 
he had rescued for him from the usurper. Arbogastes, a 
Gaul, was appointed general of the forces ; Ambrose was 
a kind of general counsellor. But Arbogastes was bold, 
ambitious, unscrupulous. He possessed much power ; he 
determined to acquire the whole. He obeyed the com- 
mands of his young sovereign or not, as suited his plea- 
sure and purposes, and surrounded him with creatures of 
his own, who, under the semblance of courtiers, acted as 
spies and gaolers. Yalentinian's residence at Yienne, in 
Gaul, became his prison rather than his palace. The sequel 
belongs to secular history, and is well known. An open 
rupture took place. Arbogastes threw off the mask. 
Yalentinian was found strangled, too late to receive bap- 
tism at the hands of Ambrose, whose coming he had 
awaited with great eagerness, as soon as he knew that his 
life was in danger. 2 Once more Italy became the prey of 
a usurper ; once more the veteran Emperor of the East 
roused himself from his well-earned repose, collected a 
huge force, consulted John, the hermit of the Thebaid, on 

1 Sozom. vii. 15. Socr. v. 15. Ambr. Ep. lvi. Theod. v. 23. 
2 Ambr. de ob. Val. 



Cn.XIIL] DEFEAT OF ARBOGASTES. 209 

the issue of the war, solicited the favour of Heaven by 
visiting the principal places of devotion in the city, and 
kneeling on flint before the tombs of martyrs and apostles, 
then set out on his march, and by the summer of a.d. 394 
again looked down from the Alps on the plains of Venetia, 
near the scene of his former victory over one usurper, and 
now covered with the tents belonging to the army of 
another. He prosecuted the campaign in the same reli- 
gious spirit in which he had undertaken it. The first 
assault made on the 5th of September against the enemy 
was repulsed. Theodosius rallied and harangued the 
troops, lifted up his eyes to heaven, and cried, ' O Lord, 
Thou knowest that I have undertaken this war only 
for the honour of thy Son, and not to leave crime un- 
punished ; stretch forth, I pray Thee, thy hand over thy 
servants, that the heathen say not of us " where is their 
God?"' The second assault was more successful; the 
night was spent by the Emperor in prayer, who was re- 
warded towards dawn by a vision of two horsemen, clothed 
in white, who bade him be of good cheer, for that they 
were the apostles St. Philip and St. John, and would not 
fail to come to his succour on the following day. The 
issue of that day was decisive ; the overthrow of Arbogastes 
complete ; his army routed ; himself slain. 1 

The conqueror was received by Ambrose, at Milan, with 
transports of joy. The victory was nobly signalised by 
a display of Christian clemency. Free pardon was pro- 
claimed in the church (whither the offenders had fled for 
refuge) to all those Milanese who had joined the side of 
the usurper. Among them were the children of Arbo- 
gastes, and of the puppet king which he had set up, 
Eugenius. They were made to expiate the crimes of their 
pagan fathers by submitting to baptism. 2 

1 Theod. v. 24. Socr. v. 25. Sozom. vii. 24. De Broglie, vi. c. 8, 
2 Ambr. Ep. lxi. lxii. 

P 



210 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XIII. 

But there was an increasing shade of gloom which 
overcast the general sunshine of joy. The health of 
Theodosius, long undermined by a disease, was now mani- 
festly fast giving way. He was sensible of his danger, 
and despatched a message to Constantinople, desiring 
that his younger son, Honorius, should be sent to join 
him at Milan. The young prince, accompanied by his 
cousin Serena (the wife of Stilicho) and his little sister 
Placidia, set off without delay. They reached Milan early 
in the year a.d. 395. Some shocks of earthquake, and 
terrific storms, which coincided with their arrival, were 
regarded as portents of future evil. The malady of Theo- 
dosius, a dropsical disorder, was rapidly gaining ground. 
He revived a little at the sight of his son, and received 
the Eucharist from the hands of Ambrose, which he had 
hitherto refused, as having too recently been engaged in 
the sanguinary scenes of war. He gave audience to a 
deputation of western bishops, who came to pay him 
homage, and besought them to heal the schism of Antioch 
by acknowledging Flavian. He besought the Pagan mem- 
bers of the senate of Rome to embrace the Christian faith, 
adding the somewhat potent argument, that Pagan worship 
must no longer expect any pecuniary aid from the State. 
He appeared for a few times at the circus, where races 
were held in honour of his victory and the arrival of the 
young prince ; but one day, while dining, he was taken 
suddenly worse, and expired early the next morning, 
Jan. 17th, a.d. 395, in the fiftieth year of his age, and 
the sixteenth of his reign. Those who watched by his 
bedside thought they detected the name of Ambrose 
faintly murmured by his dying lips. 1 

So passed away the last great Emperor of the Eoman 
world. 2 He had persistently kept in view a single and 

1 Socr. v. 26. Sozom. vii. 29. Am- idea and name of Koman Emperor 
brosii Vita a Paul, scripta, de Obit. and Koman Empire lived on for cen- 
Theod. turies more, but the elevation of 

2 Of course I do not forget that the Charlemagne was a revolt against the 



Ch. Xni.] DEATH OF THEODOSIUS. 211 

noble aim — the consolidation of the Empire. He had re- 
pelled invasion, crushed rebellion, laboured to convert 
heathenism, to suppress heresy, to reconcile opposing fac- 
tions in the Church ; and the work seemed advancing 
when he was called away, and years ensued of misrule 
and disorder, Gothic devastation, and internal corruption 
and decadence. 

The history of the Empire under Arcadius and Honorius 
presents a pitiable picture of imbecility on the part of the 
sovereigns ; of infidelity and unscrupulous ambition on the 
part of their ministers. Theodosius himself, as he lay on 
his death-bed, was perhaps conscious of impending trou- 
bles. The words supposed by Claudian to be spoken by 
the shade of Theodosius to his son Arcadius, ' Res incom- 
positas fateor tumidasque reliqui,' l express at any rate 
the true condition of affairs. To Stilicho he commended 
his younger son, Honorius, and the interests of the Western 
Empire, but added a request that he would not neglect 
Arcadius and the Eastern portion of the Empire also. The 
legal guardian, however, of Arcadius was not a man who 
would tamely submit to any supervision, or to any en- 
croachment, fancied or real, upon the rights of his office. 
He was as jealous of Stilicho as Constantinople was of 
Eome. Discernment of character cannot be reckoned 
among the great qualities of Theodosius ; otherwise he 
would not have entrusted his two sons to the guardian- 
ship of two men dissimilar in all respects but one — an 
insatiable love of power. He had placed the two weak 
princes in the hands of deadly rivals. 

Rufinus, the guardian of Arcadius and regent of the 
East, was an Aquitanian Gaul, born at Elusa, the modern 
Eause, at the foot of the Pyrenees. 9 He was the very 
model of an accomplished adventurer. Sprung from 

old order of things. He can hardly successor of Augustus. 
be regarded as a successor of Theo- ' Claud, de Bello Gild. 293. 

dosius so truly as Theodosius was a 2 Claud, in Ruf. i. v. 137. 

v 2 



212 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch.UH. 

poverty and obscurity, he was gifted by nature with a 
handsome figure, a noble demeanour, a ready tongue, an 
inventive, versatile wit. 1 He made his way, after residing 
in Milan and Eome, to the court of Constantinople ; and 
found in Theodosius a patron who could appreciate his 
talents without detecting his vices. He rapidly rose till 
he had attained the high distinction of 'Master of the 
Offices,' in a.d. 390, of consul, in connection with Arca- 
dius, in a.d. 392, and, in a.d. 394, praetorian prefect in 
presenti, a position second only to that of the Emperor 
himself. 2 He affected the warmest zeal for the Catholic 
faith, and threw himself heartily into the schemes of 
Theodosius for the suppression of heresy, no less than into 
those for the consolidation of the social and political fabric. 

But underneath this appearance of patriotic enthusiasm 
he indulged what Claudian terms an ' accursed thirst ' for 
gain. 3 By unjust law-suits he wrested patrimonies from 
the poor, and manoeuvred to unite the daughters and 
widows of the wealthy in marriage with his own fa- 
vourites, in order that he might reap their legacies and 
gifts. If any exposure of these iniquities was threatened, 
he stopped the mouths of accusers by large bribes, and 
compensated his extortions from towns by making pre- 
sents to their churches or enlarging their public buildings. 

When Theodosius departed for the Italian war, Rufinus, 
being left as guardian of Arcadius, began to conceive the 
project of elevating himself to the imperial throne. He 
made a magnificent display of his piety. Hard by his 
villa, or rather palace, in the suburb of Chalcedon, called 
the Oak, a spot which will presently acquire a melancholy 
notoriety in the history of Chrysostom, he had built a 

1 Philostorg. xi. 3. For much as- trois ministres des fils de Theodose.' 

sistance in his notices of Rufinus Rufin, Eutrope, Stilicon. 

and Eutropius, the writer must pay 2 Gibbon, iii. 67. Zozim. iv. 51. 

his acknowledgments to the admirable 3 Claud, in Ruf. i. v. 220. 
work by M. Amedee Thierry, ' Les 



Cn. XIIL] RUFIXUS AND ST1LICH0. 213 

church, and a monastery attached to it. This church he 
now determined to dedicate with great pomp, and at the 
same time to be baptized himself. For this purpose he 
assembled nineteen eastern bishops, chiefly metropolitans, 
and a number of Egyptian hermits ; strange-looking 
figures, who, with their raiment of skins, their flowing 
beards and long hair, excited much superstitious reve- 
rence. In the midst of this august assembly, the depre- 
dator of the East descended into the baptismal waters, 
arrayed in the white robes typical of innocence. The cele- 
brated Egyptian solitary, Ammonius (who will come before 
us again), administered the Sacrament, and Gregory of 
Nyssa delivered a discourse. 1 Rufinus now surrounded 
himself with a powerful party of followers ; Arcadius was 
too stupid to see, or too timid to oppose, the dangerous 
ambition of his so-called protector. 

But the death of Theodosius and the elevation of 
Stilicho to the guardianship of the West brought the 
intriguer face to face with an able and determined soldier, 
who united some of the ferocity of the barbarian with the 
stedfast patriotism of an old Roman. This last, indeed, 
was the character which Stilicho, a Yandal by birth, but 
educated at Rome, more especially emulated. It was his 
ambition to be compared to Fabricius, Curtius, Camillus. 2 
Great was his delight when Claudius, himself called a 
second Virgil, likened him in his verses to Scipio. 3 The 
poet declared that Theodosius had never fought without 
Stilicho, though Stilicho had fought without Theodosius. 
He was made not only the guardian, but father-in-law of 
Honorius, who was betrothed to his eldest daughter 
beside the deathbed of Theodosius ; the father dying in 
the happy assurance that, by creating this parental tie, 
he had secured the fidelity of his minister. The boy and 

1 See references in Thierry, p. 19, 3 ' Noster Scipiades Stilicho.' De 

2 De Laud. Stil. ii. v. 379. Consulat. Stilic. praef. v. 21. 



214 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XHI. 

girl were bronglit into the sick room, exchanged rings, 
and repeated the words which were dictated to them. 1 

The regent of the East naturally became profoundly 
jealous of the regent of the West, and in point of royal 
connection determined to be even with him. He 
humoured Arcadius into a consent to marry his own 
daughter ; and his scheme seemed on the point of com- 
pletion when an inopportune matter of business took 
him away to Antioch, and his enemy, the Chamberlain 
Eutropius, took advantage of his absence to frustrate the 
plan. A Frankish general, called Bautho, who had been 
elevated to the consulship, but had prematurely died, left 
a daughter of rare beauty, named Eudoxia. The orphan 
girl was brought up by a friend of Bautho, the son of 
Promotus, a magister militum, whom Rufinus, in revenge 
for an insult, had caused to be assassinated. Eutropius 
introduced a portrait of the young beauty to the notice 
of Arcadius. Curiosity, and soon a tenderer sentiment, 
were excited in the young Emperor's breast ; the cunning 
chamberlain fanned the flame, till he was able to persuade 
the royal youth that Eudoxia was a more eligible bride 
than the daughter of the low-born Gaul. 2 The intrigue 
was conducted with such secrecy, that Eufinus, on his 
return from Antioch, remained unsuspicious, and his 
boastful remarks on the approaching nuptials excited the 
indignation of the public. The wedding-day was fixed 
for April 25, a.d. 395. Eutropius selected from the 
imperial wardrobe some of the costliest female robes and 
jewels which it contained. They were placed on litters, 
which, escorted by a large train of splendidly apparelled 
serving-men, paraded the streets on the way, as was sup- 
posed, to the house of Rufinus. What was the astonish- 
ment of the populace when the procession suddenly 
turned in another direction, and presently stopped in 

1 Claud, de Nupt. Honor, et Mariae. 2 Zosim. v. 3. 



Cn. XIIL] ARCADIUS WEDS EUDOXL\. 215 

front of the house of Promotus ! A loud shout of joy 
burst from the lips of the multitude, and proclaimed to 
Rufinus the unpopularity of his project, and the general 
satisfaction at its defeat. The bride thus cunningly sub- 
stituted was destined to play a conspicuous part in the 
later scenes of Chrysostom's career. She inherited the 
fair beauty, the energetic spirit, the impulsive, sometimes 
fierce temper of the race from which she sprang. Her 
father had remained firmly attached to the pagan religion 
of his ancestors, but, in deference to Theodosius, his 
patron, he had allowed his daughter to be baptized and 
educated in the Christian faith. 1 Impatient of control, 
she resolved to possess herself of her husband's confidence 
in order to govern through him, and gradually to dis- 
engage herself from the management alike of Rufinus and 
Eutropius. 

Kufinus had been thoroughly outwitted in his matri- 
monial scheme, but his resources were far from being 
exhausted. The sequel of his life belongs too exclusively 
to secular history to be more than glanced at here. He 
played a subtle and desperate game, seldom, if ever, sur- 
passed in villany. Some Hunnish tribes, encouraged by 
him, made incursions into Armenia, Pontus, Cappadocia, 
and even as far as the vicinity of Antioch. 2 The court 
was in the extremity of alarm, for the main forces of the 
army and treasury had been drained to the West when 
Theodosius marched against Arbogastes, and remained in 
the hands of Stilicho. Worse still, the formidable chief- 
tain Alaric, of the royal race of the Visigoths, who had 
lately distinguished himself in the Italian wars under 
Theodosius, began to complain of unrequited services, and 
with a motley force of Huns, Alani, Sarmatians, and 

1 Symmach. Ep. iv. 15 and 16. among other recent calamities. These 

2 Possibly alluded to by Chrysostom homilies were probably delivered in 
in horn. iv. de Penitentia, c. 2, where a.d. 395. 

he mentions ' incursions of enemies ' 



216 LIFE AND TDIES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XIII. 

Goths, descended into Thrace, and ravaged the country 
up to the walls of Constantinople. The inhabitants were 
convulsed with panic ; all except the artful intriguer, who 
had already struck his bargain with the invaders. He 
rode out of Constantinople accoutred as a Gothic warrior, 
went through the farce of an interview with Alaric, and 
returned with the joyful intelligence that his intercessions 
had saved the city, and that the Gothic prince had con- 
sented to withdraw his troops. And so he did; not, how- 
ever, to retire to the Gothic settlements in the north, but 
to pour southwards in a devastating flood over Greece. 
This was the plot of Rufinus. The possession of the 
Illyrian provinces was disputed between the courts of 
East and West. Alaric occupied these. Stilicho, with 
extraordinary energy, collected a large army, advanced 
against the devastator, who was supposed to be the 
common enemy of the whole Empire; but when on the 
point of attacking him, he was arrested by a message 
from Constantinople, which commanded him to abstain 
from any hostilities against the ravager of Greece. c He 
was the good friend of Arcadius : he occupied the province 
of Illyria as his ally, which Stilicho was to evacuate im- 
mediately, and to restore the troops and treasure which 
belonged to the East.' The troops were sent back by 
Stilicho under the command of Gamas, but with the 
secret understanding that he should compass the death of 
Rufinus. The result is well known. Rufinus fell just as 
he was placing his foot on the topmost round of his 
ladder of ambition. He was standing on the tribune, 
where Arcadius was to proclaim him Caesar, in the pre- 
sence of a vast multitude; he was making a flowery 
harangue to the troops, complimenting them on their 
exploits, congratulating them on their restoration to their 
homes, when those very troops closed in upon him, 
plunged their swords into his body, and presently hacked 



Cn. xiu.] rise of euteopius. 217 

it to pieces. A soldier who got hold of his right arm, 
and having crooked the fingers of the hand, went about 
the town, holding it in front of him, and crying, 'An obol, 
an obol for him who never had enough/ collected a large 
sum by his g*rini and savage jest. 1 

Arcadius was quite incapable of handling the reins of 
government himself, and the downfall of one all-powerful 
minister would in any case have been quickly followed by 
the rise of another ; but, as it happened, there was one 
ready to step immediately into the vacant place. The 
fortunes of this person, the eunuch Eutropius, ran a 
strange career. Born a slave, somewhere in the region 
of the Euphrates, and condemned in infancy to the most 
degraded condition possible even to slavery, he passed in 
boyhood and youth through the hands of many owners. 
He performed the most menial offices as a household 
slave, cutting wood, drawing water, or whisking the flies 
from his mistress's face with a large fan. Arinthus, an 
old m agister militum, who had become possessed of him, 
presented him to his daughter on her marriage ; and, in 
the words of Claudian, 6 the future consul of the East was 
made over as part of a marriage dowry.' 2 But the young 
lady grew tired of the slave, who was getting elderly and 
wrinkled, and, without attempting to sell him, simply 
turned him out of doors. 3 He lived for a time, picking 
up a precarious livelihood, and often in great want, till an 
officer about court at Constantinople took pity on him, 
and with some difficulty obtained for him a situation in 
the lowest ranks of the imperial chamberlains. 4 This was 
the beginning of his rise. By the diligence and precision 
with which he discharged his ordinary duties, by occa- 
sional witty sayings, and the semblance of a fervent piety, 

1 Thierry, pp. 35-78. Claud, in 3 'Contemptu jam liber erat.' — 
Ruf. bk. ii. Claud, in Eutrop. i. v. 132. 

2 In Eutrop. i. v. 104, 105. 4 Ibid. v. 148, 149, 



218 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XIII. 

he attracted the notice of the Emperor Theodosius, and 
gradually acquired his confidence so as to be employed 
on difficult and delicate missions. He it was whom the 
Emperor sent to consult the hermit John in Egypt before 
undertaking the Italian campaign in a.d. 394. 1 

On the death of Theodosius he became, in the capacity 
of grand chamberlain, the intimate adviser and constant 
attendant of Arcadius ; and, when Rufinus was removed, 
the government was practically in his hands, though he 
was careful to avoid the error of his late rival, and was 
content with the reality without the display of power. 
He continued to execute all the household duties which 
fell to his lot as chamberlain with humble assiduity, and 
sought no other title than what he possessed. 2 But it was 
soon apparent, to the amusement of the East and the 
indignation of the West, that the eunuch slave was really 
master of the Emperor of half the Eoman world. He 
gradually removed by his arts the friends of Theodosius 
from the principal posts of trust, and replaced them by 
creatures of his own. By surrounding his royal charge 
with a crowd of frivolous companions ; by dissipating his 
thoughts amidst a perpetual round of amusement, public 
spectacles, chariot races, and the like; by taking him 
every spring to Ancyra in Phrygia, where he was subjected 
to the soft enchantments of a delicious climate and luxu- 
rious manner of life, he made the naturally feeble mind 
of Arcadius more feeble still, and withdrew it from the 
influence of every superior intellect but his own. 3 

Whilst the effeminate monarch languished in inglorious 
ease in Phrygia, the fairest and most renowned portions 
of his Empire were overrun by the barbarian forces of 
Alaric. The sacred pass of Thermopylae was violated by 
the Gothic prince, and the ravager spread his devasta- 

1 Sozom. vii. 22. ' Claud, in Eutrop. i. 427, &c. ; ii. 

2 Philostorg. xi. 5. 97, &c. 



Oh. Xin.] TYRANNY OF EUTROPIUS. 219 

tions over Peloponnesus. Once more Stilicho hastened 
to the rescue ; once more his hand was stayed by the 
astonishing announcement that Alaric was rewarded for 
his career of spoliation by being made commander-in- 
chief of the forces of the East. Thus the invader was 
turned into the position of friend, and the defender into 
the position of rebel, who had to withdraw with feelings 
of shame, disappointment, and rage. To such base arts 
did the court of Arcadius, under the direction of Eutro- 
pius, stoop to protect itself in its pitiful jealousy of its 
rival in the West. 1 

Eutropius mounted to the summit of power by the 
simple process of putting all dangerous competitors out 
of the way, under various pretexts, as treasonable or 
otherwise public offenders. 2 He deprived them of their 
last hope of escape, by abolishing the right of the Church 
to afford asylum to fugitives. 3 He sold the chief functions 
of the State, and the command of the provinces, to the 
highest bidders. He was ambitious even of military 
glory ; and, to the amusement of the enemy, as well as of 
the imperial army, appeared in military costume at the 
head of the troops, to repel an incursion of Huns. He 
succeeded, however, more in his negotiations by which he 
bought off the enemy, than in his martial exploits, and 
returned mortified by the ridicule which had attended his 
attempts in war. 4 

From the pettiest detail of domestic life to the most 
serious affairs of state, the minister was supreme. Arca- 
dius was little more than a magnificently dressed puppet. 
The descriptions of his palace read like accounts in 
fairy tales : it swarmed with slaves of every conceivable 
variety of race, profession, and costume ; the floors of the 

1 Thierry, pp. 97-126. Zosim. v. 5. 3 Sozom. viii. 7. 

Claud, in Eutrop. ii. * Claud, in Eutrop. i. 235, &c. 

2 Zosim. v. 8, 9, 12. 



220 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XIII. 

imperial apartments were sprinkled with gold dust, in the 
carriage of which from Asia a special service of vessels 
and waggons was constantly engaged. 1 The great annual 
public spectacle was the departure of the Emperor for his 
summer sojourn in Phrygia. From an early hour the 
streets were thronged with people eagerly waiting for the 
pageant. At length, from the portals of the palace there 
issued a gorgeous procession ; soldiers in white uniform, 
with gold-brocaded ensigns ; then the body guard, called 
domestics, with their tribunes and generals arrayed in 
robes flashing with gold, mounted on horses with golden 
caparisons; each rider bore a gilded lance in the right 
hand, and in the left a gilded shield studded with 
precious stones. In the rear, surrounded by a grand 
cortege of state officials, came the imperial car, drawn by 
milk-white mules, clothed in purple housings, which were 
tricked out with gold and jewels. The sides of the car 
also were gilded, and flashed out rays of golden light as 
it moved along towards the harbour, where rode a fleet 
of barges richly decorated, waiting to convey the royal 
traveller to the opposite shore of the Bosphorus. In 
strange contrast to all this splendour appeared in the 
centre of the car the dull and somnolent countenance of 
the young Arcadius and the wrinkled visage of his old 
minister. The multitude, ever greedy of shoAV, would 
eagerly strain forward their necks to catch a glimpse, if 
it were only of the imperial ear-rings, or the circlet of his 
diadem, or the strings of pearls upon his robe. With 
such empty exhibitions of their puppet king did the wily 
minister seek to amuse the frivolous inhabitants of the 
capital, while he himself enjoyed the exercise of real 
power. 2 

1 Synes. do Kegno, p. 16. 

2 Claud, in Eutrop. ii. 95. Thierry, p. 162, &c. 



221 



CHAPTER XIV. 

DEATH OF NECTARIUS, ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE — EAGER COM- 
PETITION FOR THE SEE — ELECTION OF CHEYSOSTOM HIS COMPUL- 
SORY REMOVAL FROM ANTIOCH CONSECRATION — REFORMS — HOMILIES 

ON YARIOUS SUBJECTS — MISSIONARY PROJECTS. 

Such whs the political and social condition of the Empire 
in the year a.d. 397. In September of that year died 
Nectarius, Archbishop of Constantinople, a man of an 
easy, amiable disposition, who, not taking a very elevated 
or severe view of the duties of his position, had adminis- 
tered the see for sixteen years, without annoyance, but 
without distinction. 1 A conscientious discharge, indeed, 
of episcopal duties was at this epoch beset by no small diffi- 
culties in the great cities of the Empire. Bishops of im- 
portant sees now occupied a high social rank. 2 This had 
to be assumed (in Constantinople at least) in the midst of 
an intriguing, factious court, a corrupt, frivolous people, 
and a demoralised, or at least secularised, clergy. ' No- 
thing,' said St. Augustine, ' can in this life, and especially 
at this time, be easier or more agreeable than the office of 
bishop, presbyter, or deacon, if discharged in a perfunc- 
tory and adulatory manner ; nothing can in this life, and 
especially at this time, be more laborious and perilous than 
such an office, if discharged as our heavenly Commander 
bids us.' 3 And the testimony of Chrysostom's friend, 
Isidore, Abbot of Pelusium, is to the same effect : ' True 
freedom and independence are not to be found in these 

1 Socr. vi. 2. c. iv. and in Act. Apost. horn. iii. 5. 

2 See Chrysostom's own remarks in 3 Epist. xxi. ad Valerium. 
De Sacerdotis. b. iii., cited above in 



222 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XIV. 

distinguished positions : it is so difficult to rule some, and 
to submit to others ; to direct some, and to be directed by 
others ; to be complaisant to some and severe to others.' 
Into this difficult and delicate position the pious, single- 
minded, unworldly, but courageous preacher of Antioch 
was to be suddenly transplanted, and that in a city where 
the difficulties incident to such a position existed in pecu- 
liar force. 

At the time of the decease of Nectarius, several bishops 
happened to be sojourning in Constantinople on business, 
and as tidings of the vacancy of the see got abroad, the 
number of episcopal visitors largely increased ; some 
coming as candidates, others by the invitation of the 
Emperor, who wished to make the ceremony of conse- 
cration as dignified and august as possible. 1 Constan- 
tinople became convulsed by all those factious disputes 
and dissensions which usually attended the election of a 
bishop to an important see, and which Chrysostom has 
so vividly described in his treatise on the priesthood. 2 
From dawn of day the places of public resort were occu- 
pied by the candidates and their partisans paying court, 
or paying bribes to the common people ; canvassing the 
nobles and the wealthy not without the potent aid of rich 
and costly gifts, some statue from Greece or silk from 
India, or perfumes from Arabia. 3 One of the most con- 
spicuous candidates was Isidore, a presbyter of Alex- 
andria. His claims were eagerly pushed by Theophilus, 
Archbishop of Alexandria, who had a strong personal 
interest in securing his success. For Isidore was the 
depositary of a rather awkward secret in the past his- 
tory of Theophilus himself. When the war between 
Theodosius and the usurper Maximus was impending, 
Isidore had been despatched by the Archbishop to Italy 

1 Socrat. vi. 2. Sozom. viii. 2. 2 Lib. iii. c. 15, 17. 

3 Pallad. Dial. c. 5. 



Ch. XIV.] CHRYSOSTOM MADE ARCHBISHOP. 223 

with letters of congratulation to be presented to him who 
should prove the conqueror. Isidore waited till victory 
had declared itself in favour of Theodosius; presented 
the humble felicitations of the patriarch, and returned to 
Alexandria. But he was unable on his return to produce 
the other letter, designed for Maximus had he proved 
the victor. According to his own account, it had been 
abstracted by the reader who had accompanied him on 
the journey. Theophilus, however, suspected the fidelity 
of Isidore himself, and that some ugly stories which 
began to circulate respecting the affair had emanated 
from him. The see of Constantinople, if secured through 
his interest, would be an effectual means, he thought, of 
stopping the mouth of Isidore. 1 But he was doomed to 
disappointment. While the several candidates and their 
patrons were exhausting all their arts on the spot to 
obtain the favour of the electors, the clergy and people, 
distracted by conflicting bribes and arguments, unani- 
mously decided to summon a man from a distance who 
had not come forward at all. They submitted the name 
of Chrysostom to the Emperor, who immediately ap- 
proved their choice. 2 In fact, the election of Chrysostom 
was in all probability the suggestion of Eutropius. 
During a recent visit on public business to Antioch he 
had heard and recognised the eloquence of the great 
preacher. Even if the heart of the man was not touched 
by the pungent warnings, or warmed by the kindling 
exhortations of Chrysostom, he had plenty of astuteness to 
perceive, if only such an eloquence could be employed in 
the service of the Government, what a powerful engine 
it would be. 3 The appointment, at any rate, was certain 
to be welcomed by the people, and of popularity Eutropius 
stood greatly in need. By the people of Antioch indeed 

1 Socr. vi. 2. Sozom. viii. 2. Pallad. 2 Socr. vi. 2. Sozom. viii. 2. 

Dial. 3 Pallad, Dial. c. 5. 



224 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CIIKYSOSTOM. [Ch. XIV, 

Chrysostom was so deeply and ardently beloved, that the 
question was how to remove him without causing a dis- 
turbance of the public peace. The excitable feelings of 
the populace at Antioch were at all times a very powder 
train which needed but the application of a spark to cause 
a serious explosion of tumult. The difficulty was solved 
by a mixture of force and fraud highly characteristic of 
the chief designer and executor of the project. Eutropius 
addressed a letter to Asterius, the Count of the East, who 
resided in Antioch, and who promptly acted on his in- 
structions. He proposed to the unsuspecting Chrysostom 
that they should pay a visit together to one of the 
martyries outside the city walls. Well pleased to make 
this pious pilgrimage, the saintly preacher accompanied 
his captor through the Roman gate, and turned his back 
on his beloved native city, which he was destined never 
to revisit. At the martyry he was seized by some Govern- 
ment officials, and carried on to Pagrse, the first station 
on the high road for Constantinople. Here a chariot 
and horses awaited them, together with one of the im- 
perial chamberlains, a c magister militum,' and an escort 
of soldiers. The bewildered Chrysostom was hurried into 
the chariot, without any attention being paid to his re- 
monstrances or enquiries ; the horses were put into a 
smart gallop and the pace well kept up to the next stage, 
where a similar equipage was in waiting. Such was the 
rapid, but, considering all the circumstances, undignified 
approach of the future archbishop to take possession of 
his see. 1 

Great was the joy of the people on his arrival, great 
the mortification and consternation of the rival candidates. 
Theophilus loudly declared that he would take no part in 
the ordination. ' You will ordain him,' said Eutropius, 
' or take your trial on the charges contained in these 

1 Sozom. viii. 2. Pallacl. Dial. 5. 



On. XIV.] HIS COX3ECKATIOX. 225 

documents ; ' and thereupon produced certain papers of 
accusations brought against him from various quarters, 
at the sight of which Theophilus turned pale. His oppo- 
sition was effectually silenced, though he nourished his 
revenge for a future day. 1 And we may presume that he 
took the lead, by virtue of his rank, in the ceremony of 
consecration — that is, that he pronounced the consecration 
prayer and blessing, while two other bishops held the 
gospels over the head, and the other prelates who were 
present laid their hands on the head of the recipient of 
consecration. 2 The ceremony took place on February 26, 
a.d. 39S, in the presence of a vast concourse of people, 
who came, no doubt, not only to witness the spectacle, 
but to hear from the lips of one so famed for eloquence 
the ' Sermo enthronisticus/ or homily on the lesson for 
the day, which was delivered by the new Patriarch 3 
after he had been conducted to his throne, and which was 
regarded as a test of his powers. This discourse has not 
been preserved, but Chrysostom alludes to it in the 
homily numbered xi. against the Anoinseans, which was 
the second discourse he delivered as archbishop. He 
there reminds his hearers how in his first discourse he 
had promised, in his warfare with heretics, to trust, net 
in the carnal weapons of human dialectic, but in the 
spiritual armour of Holy Scripture, even as David had 
confronted and prevailed over the Philistine with weapons 
which the warrior despised, but which were crowned with 
success because blessed by God. 4 In the review already 
taken of his discourses against Arians and other heretics, 



1 Socr. vi. 2. it (vide c. 8), "but the first occurrence 

2 Bingham, b. ii. c. 11, sec. 8. of it in any public document is in the 

3 The title Patriarch is occasionally acts of the Council of Chalcedon, a.d. 
used in the following pages, although 451, where it is applied especially to 
it does not appear to have been a for- Leo I. of Kome. — Can. 28. Labbe, 
mally recognised title till fifty years vol. iv. 

later. Socrates (a..d. 440 about) uses 4 Horn. xi. in Anom. vol. i. p. 795. 



226 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHKYSOSTOM. [Ch. XIY 

it has been seen how faithfully he adhered to this prin- 
ciple. 

The disadvantages of a monastic, secluded training", in 
one who was called upon to occupy a large and important 
see, have been pointed out by no one better than Chry- 
sostom himself, 1 and he now experienced the truth of his 
own observations. His genius was not of that practical 
order which displays itself in great discernment of cha- 
racter, and tact in the management of men; and his 
virtues were of that austere kind, the virtues of the monk 
rather than of the Christian citizen, joined to a certain 
irritability of temper and inflexibility of will, which were 
ill calculated to first conciliate and then delicately lead 
on to a purer way of life the undisciplined flock com- 
mitted to his care. 2 If ISTectarius had been too much the 
man of the world, his successor was, for the position in 
which he was placed, too much the saint of the cloister. 
The new wine burst the old bottles. He began imme- 
diately to reform with an unsparing hand — first of all 
within the limits of his own palace. The costly store 
of silken and gold-embroidered robes, the rich marbles, 
ornaments, and vessels of various kinds which his courtly 
predecessor had accumulated, were sold in exchange for 
homelier articles, and the surplus was applied to the aid 
of hospitals and the relief of the destitute. 3 The bishop, 
and many of the clergy of Constantinople, had been ac- 
customed to entertain and be entertained by the wealthy 
and the great. Ammianus Marcellinus contrasts the 
luxurious style of living affected by the bishops of great 
cities, who 'rode about in their carriages, elaborately 
dressed, and gave princely banquets,' with the frugal fare, 
the cheap clothing, the modest deportment of the pro- 
vincial bishops. 4 The admonition of Jerome also to an 

1 De Sacerd. b. vi. c. 6-8, quoted 3 Pallad. Dial. c. v. p. 20. 
above, e. iv. 4 Lib. xxvii. e. 3. 

2 Soc. vi. 3. Sozom. viii. 9. 



1'n. X1Y.] UNPOPULAR REFORMS. 22/ 

episcopal friend demonstrates the tendency at this period 
to an immoderate and worldly hospitality on the part of 
the clergy. <■ Avoid/ he says, ' giving great entertain- 
ments to the laity, and especially to those who occupy 
high stations ; for it is not very reputable to see the 
lictors and guards of a consul waiting outside the doors of 
a priest of Jesus Christ, nor that the judge of a province 
should dine more sumptuously with you than in the 
palace. If it be pretended that you do this only to be 
able to intercede with him for poor criminals, there is no 
judge who will not pay greater respect to a frugal priest 
than to a rich one, and show more deference to your piety 
than to your wealth.' l Chrysostom, like Jerome, was an 
uncompromising ascetic in his views on clerical life. He 
ate in solitude the spare and simple diet of a monk, and 
declared that he would never set foot at Court except on 
pressing affairs concerning the welfare of the Church. 
When one considers what the character of that Court 
was, it must be confessed that the resolution highly 
became a Christian bishop. 2 His own seclusion might 
have been easily tolerated if he had not exacted the same 
severe simplicity of life in his clergy. He denounced 
their parasitical flatteries, and their propensity to seek 
entertainments at the tables of the wealthy, and insisted 
that their stipends must be quite sufficient to supply them 
with the necessaries of life. He suspended many from 
their cures on account of worldly or immoral conduct, and 
repelled others from the Eucharist. Several of these 
became the most active organisers of hostile cabals. 

But there was another cause of the Archbishop's unpo- 
pularity with his clergy, which arose from his vigorous 
assaults upon a deep and apparently most prevalent evil. 

Celibacy appears never to have been made obligatory 
on the clergy of the Eastern Church. The Synod of 

1 Epist. ii. ad Nepotianum. 2 Pallad. Dial. c. v. and xii. 

q 2 



228 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Cn. XIV. 

Elvira, which enjoins celibacy, was a purely Spanish synod ; ! 
and the decree of Pope Siricius to the same effect, in 
a.d. 385, could not affect any countries beyond Italy, Spain, 
and perhaps Southern Gaul. That decree is a remarkable 
instance of the law -giving spirit of the Western Church, 
which hardened tendencies into binding statutes. But 
sentiment and opinion were quite as strong in favour 
of clerical celibacy in the East as in the West. It was 
proposed at the Council of Nice that a canon should be 
passed enforcing it upon every order of the clergy; a 
proposal which was defeated only by the influence of the 
aged Egyptian monk Paphuntius, who, though he had 
never been married and had always lived an ascetic life, 
earnestly deprecated the imposition of a burden upon all 
men which some men only were able to bear. The result 
was that the clergy were permitted to retain their wives 
whom they had married before ordination, but were for- 
bidden to marry after ordination. And this is called c the 
ancient tradition of the Church.' 2 There can be no doubt, 
however, that a profound conviction possessed the minds 
of all the most earnest Christians in Eastern Christendom 
that the unmarried life was inherently better than the 
married; and, consequently, clerical celibacy was honoured 
and encouraged, though marriage was allowable. On the 
other hand, there grew up, side by side with the practice of 
celibacy, a custom which broke it in the spirit while it 
was preserved in the letter. The same Council of Nice 
which by one canon freely granted to the clergy the 
society of their lawful wives, by another prohibits un- 
married clergy of every rank to have any woman dwelling 
under the same roof who was not their mother, sister, or 
aunt. 3 It was the transgression of this canon which 

1 See Hefele, p. 131, and on the date of the story has been disputed, but 
of this. synod. apparently on insufficient grounds. 

2 Stanley East. Church, lecture v. Vide Hefele, p. 436. 

Soc. i. 11. Sozom. i. 23. The truth 9 Can. 3. Hefele, p. 379. 



Cn. XIV. j 'SPIRITUAL SISTERS" OF PRIESTS. 229 

was indignantly complained of by several writers ! and 
councils 2 in or near the time of Chrysostorn as well as by 
Chrysostom himself. Under the name of spiritual sisters, 
young women, often consecrated virgins of the Church, 
lived, as they maintained, in all innocent and sisterly affec- 
tion with unmarried priests. But the risk to the morals 
of both was imminent, and the scandal which it brought 
upon the clergy in the eyes of the world was certain. 
Chrysostom denounces the custom on both these grounds. 
Whether two treatises, one addressed to the men, the 
other to the women, were composed at Constantinople, or, 
as Socrates says, during his diaconate, they embody his 
views on the whole subject, and afford a curious insight 
into clerical life in the great cities at this epoch. 3 

He places the offenders on the horns of a dilemma. ' If 
you are weak, the temptation to evil is so great, that for 
your own sake you ought to avoid it ; if you are strong, 
you ought to abandon the practice for the sake of those 
who are weak.' They brought a great scandal on the 
Church and opened the mouths of adversaries. An isolated 
sin would be less severely visited than one which, though 
comparatively small in itself, caused others also to offend. 
They should imitate the wisdom of St. Paul, who would 
not do a thing in itself desirable or harmless, if the evil 
resulting to some exceeded any possible advantage to 
others. 4 A pretext for the reception of these unmarried 
women was made on the ground that they were orphans 
who had no protectors. But this became a great snare 
both to the women and the clergy : they were occupied 
with the management of property instead of devoting 
themselves to. spiritual concerns. It would be far better 
that a maiden should marry than, by abstaining from 

1 Jerome, Ep. xxii. ad Eustoch. Epi- 3 Contra eos, etc., vol. i. p. 495. 
pban. Hser. 63. * Ibid. c. 3, 4. 

2 See refer, in Bingham, b. vi. c. ii. 1 3. 



230 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Oh. XIV. 

marriage, involve herself and others in worldly business, 
who ought to be free from it. If poor, it was better she 
should remain poor and friendless, than be received into 
a home where the danger incurred by the soul would far 
exceed the advantages procured for the body. There 
were many aged women who were poor, friendless, maimed, 
or diseased ; the city was full of them. These were the 
most deserving objects of clerical charity, and on them 
it could be exercised without fear of reproach. 1 These 
' spiritual sisters ' appear from Chrysostom's account to 
have often lived very much like fine ladies of fashion. 
6 How incongruous and ludicrous/ he says, ' when you 
enter the house of one who calls himself a single man, to 
see articles of female dress and instruments of female 
occupation lying about — girdles, head gear, wool baskets, 
spindles, distaffs ! ' In the elaboration of their dress these 
companions often surpassed actresses ; they were gossips 
and match-makers. The man who ought to have renounced 
all worldly calls, might be seen enquiring at the silver- 
smith's if his lady's mirror was ready, her casket finished, 
her flask returned ; from the silversmith's he hurried to 
the perfumer's to see about her scents ; from the perfumer 
to the linen-draper, and so on upon a round of shopping. 
All this business and worldly worry made them harsh 
to the servants, who retaliated by secretly abusing their 
master and mistress. 2 This was bad enough, but the 
clergy were not ashamed to display their servile attach- 
ment to these women even in the churches. They re- 
ceived them at the doors, forced others to make way for 
them, and walked in front of them with a proud air, when 
they ought not to have been able to lift up their heads for 
shame. 3 

Chrysostom implores the clergy as a suppliant to liber- 
ate themselves from these disgraceful and degrading con- 

1 Contra eos. etc. c. 7. = Ibid. c. 9, 3 Ibid. c. 10. 



Ch. XIV.] CHRYSOSTOM AND THE EMPRESS. 231 

nections. ' Christ would have thein be strenuous soldiers 
and combatants. He did not arm them with spiritual 
weapons to help women sew and weave, but to engage 
with the invisible powers, to put to flight the forces of 
Satan, and to lead captive the rulers of spiritual darkness. 
If a soldier who was fully equipped were to run in-doors 
and sit down with the women just at the moment of the 
enemy's attack, when the trumpet sounded everyone to 
the combat, would you not run your sword through the 
craven on the spot? How much more would God be 
offended with the Christian soldier who evaded the 
combat with the spiritual enemy ? ' ] 

The rigour with which Chrysostom pressed reformation 
upon the clergy in these and many other points, not being- 
tempered by a conciliatory manner or genial way of life, 
excited a vehement spirit of opposition. He was en- 
couraged in his severity by his Archdeacon Serapion, who 
on one occasion had said, in the hearing of a large body 
of clergy, ' You will never subdue these mutinous priests, 
my Lord Bishop, till you drive them all before you as 
with a single rod.' 2 In fact, a large body of the more 
worldly clergy seem to have regarded the Archbishop 
and his deacon with much the same mingled feelings 
of fear and aversion which unruly schoolboys entertain 
towards an austere master. 

The rigorous discipline exacted from the clergy was 
probably by no means distasteful to the people or the 
Court, and by the eloquence of their new bishop they 
were entranced so long as his declamations were poured 
forth against the vices and follies of society in general. 
The Empress and Archbishop stood for a time high in 
each other's favour. She conducted with him a vast torch- 
light procession in which the reliques of some martyrs 
were conveyed to the martyry of St. Thomas in Drypia, 

1 Contra eos, etc.. c. 10. 2 Soc. vi. 4. 



232 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST, CHRYS'OSTOM. [Ch. XIV. 

a considerable distance outside the city. A rapturous 
homily was delivered by Chrysostom when they reached 
the chapel at dawn of day. c What shall I say? I am 
verily mad with joy ; yet such a madness is better than 
even wisdom itself. Of what shall I most discourse ? — the 
virtue of the martyrs, the alacrity of the city, the zeal of 
the Empress, the concourse of the nobles, the worsting of 
the demons ? ' . . ' Women, more delicate than wax, leav- 
ing their comfortable homes, emulated the stoutest men in 
the eagerness with which they made this long pilgrimage 
on foot. Nobles, leaving their chariots, their lictors, their 
attendants, mingled in the common crowd. And why 
speak of them when she who wears the diadem, and is 
arrayed in purple, has not consented along the whole route 
to be separated from the rest even by a little space, but 
has followed the saints like their handmaid, with her 
finger on the shrine and upon the veil covering it — she, 
visible to the whole multitude, whom not even all the 
chamberlains of the palace are usually permitted to see?' 
The mixture of populations in Constantinople is indicated 
in one passage, where, comparing the Empress to Miriam 
leading the chorus of triumphant Israelites, he says, ' she, 
indeed, led forth a people of one language only, but thou 
innumerable bands, chanting the Psalms of David, some 
in the Roman, some in the Syrian, some in a barbarian, 
some in the Greek tongue.' The procession moved along- 
like a stream of fire, or continuous golden chain; the 
moon shone down upon the crowd of the faithful, and 
in the midst the Empress, more brilliant than the moon 
itself; for what was the moon compared to a soul adorned 
with such faith? He called her blessed, for the ends 
of the earth would hear of and extol this glorious act 
of piety. ' If the deed of the poor sinful woman in 
the Gospel, who anointed our Lord's feet, was to be pro- 
claimed throughout the world, how much more that of 



Ch. XIV.] DENUNCIATIONS OF AVARICE. 233 

a modest, dignified, chaste woman, who displayed much 
piety in the midst of imperial state.' And there is much 
more to the same effect ; all singularly oriental, rhap- 
sodical, almost dervish-like in the ecstasy of its style. 1 

The Emperor made a pilgrimage on the following day 
to the shrine, accompanied by all the great officials of the 
Court ; and another discourse, similar in tone though not 
quite so extravagantly rapturous, was delivered by the 
Archbishop. 

As in Antioch, so also and with still greater vehemence 
in Constantinople the voice of Chrysostom was incessantly 
lifted up against those vices which specially beset a 
large mixed population living under a corrupt despotism. 
Here as there the avarice and luxury of the wealthy are 
the themes of his indignant invective; the wrongs and 
pitiable poverty of the poor the occasions of his pathetic 
appeal. One day lamenting the paucity of worshippers, 
he exclaims, ' tyranny of money which drives the 
greater part of our brethren from the fold ! for it is 
nothing but that grievous disease, that never quenched 
furnace, which drives them hence ; this mistress, more 
ferocious than any barbarian or wild beast, fiercer than 
the very demons, taking her slaves with her, is now 
conducting them round the Forum, inflicting upon them 
her oppressive commands, nor suffers them to take a 
little breath from their destructive labours.' . . . 'May 
you derive great good from the zeal with which you 
listen to these words, for your groaning and the smitings 
of your foreheads prove that the seed which I have sown 
is already bearing fruit.' 2 

A signal instance of the passionate attachment of the 
people to the Circensian and theatrical exhibitions oc- 
curred about the close of the first year of his episcopate. 3 

1 Vol. xii. p. 4fi8. 3 Contra Lud. et Theat. vol. vi. p. 

2 Ibid. p. 485. 269, in fine. 



234 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [On. XIV. 

A violent rain had half inundated the fields and almost 
destroyed the growing crops ; solemn processional litanies 
were made to the churches of the Apostles on both sides 
of the Bosphorus ; jet two days later the majority of that 
multitude, which had just been invoking the intercession 
of saints and supplicating the mercy of God, poured into 
the circus, and might be seen wildly applauding and 
cheering on the chariots ; and from that they hastened 
to witness with eager eyes the indecent performances of 
the theatre : 6 while I,' said the Archbishop, ' sitting at 
home and hearing your shouts, suffered worse agonies 
than those who are tossed by storms at sea.' 1 . . . ' What 
defence will you be able to make when you have to render 
an account of that day's work ? For thee the sun rose, the 
moon lit up the night, choirs of stars spangled the sky ; 
for thee the winds blew, and rivers ran, seeds germinated, 
plants grew, and the whole course of nature kept its 
proper order : but thou, when Creation is ministering to 
thy needs, thou fulfillest the pleasure of the devil.' 2 . . . 
' Say not that few have wandered from the fold ; though 
it were but five or two or one, the loss would be great. 
The shepherd in the Gospel left the ninety and nine, and 
hastened after the one, nor did he return till he had made 
up the complete number of the flock by its restoration. 
Though it be only one, yet it is a soul for which this 
visible world was created, for which laws and statutes 
and the diverse operations of God have been put in motion, 
yea, for whose sake God spared not bis only Son.' . . . 
' Therefore I loudly declare that if anyone after this ad- 
monition shall desert the fold for the pestilent vice of the 
theatre, I will not admit him inside these rails. 3 I will 
not administer to him the holy mysteries or allow him to 

1 Contra Lud. et Theat, c. 1. to the altar. This was the most pri- 

2 Ibid. c. ?■. native custom. Sometimes the reci- 

3 From this and what follows it pients stood: vide passages cited in 
would appear that communicants went Bingham, b. viii. ch. 6. sec. 7. 
within the rails to receive, and cl^sc 



Cii. XIV.] DENUNCIATIONS OF THE CHARIOT EACES. 235 

touch the holy table, but expel hiiu as shepherds drive 
out the diseased sheep from the fold lest they should 
contaminate the rest.' 

The iniquity of the people's defection had been aggra- 
vated on this occasion by the fact that the days on which 
they had rushed in such crowds to the circus and theatre 
were Good Friday and Holy Saturday. On the Sunday 
following Easter Day the church was fully thronged. 
An aged Galatian bishop, being present, was requested, 
according to a polite custom of that time, to preach. But 
the congregation expressed their disapproval by shouts 
of dissent, and by withdrawing in large numbers. They 
wanted to hear what more their eloquent castigator had 
to say on the subject on which he had so vehemently 
declaimed on Easter Day. Chrysostom was so much 
gratified and encouraged by the alacrity which the people 
had thus manifested to listen to his objurgations that his 
censure of the chariot races, the next time he preached, 
were milder than usual. He contents himself with ob- 
serving that the shocking accident of the day before, when 
a young man about to be married had been run over in 
the course and cut to pieces by the chariot wheels, was a 
damning proof of the wild folly and wickedness of these 
spectacles. Nor does he rebuke them very sharply for 
their discourtesy to the Galatian prelate. 1 They always 
resented the preaching of a stranger ; on several occasions 
Chrysostom had to appeal to their feelings of respect for 
the custom of the Church, or enlarge on the reverence 
due to the preacher, either on account of his age or his 
great virtues, before they would listen patiently. 

It is impossible to determine in every case whether a 
homily or set of homilies was delivered at Antioch or 
Constantinople, but the character of society seems to have 
been in its main features so similar in the two cities that 

'■ Vol. xii. Horn. ix. 



236 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XIV. 

it may be allowable to collect into one place notices on 
various social subjects scattered up and down his works. 
The extremes of wealth and poverty, barbaric splendour 
and abject beggary, existed side by side in hideous and 
glaring contrast. 

The passion for the use of the precious metals was 
amazing. Vessels for the meanest purposes were made 
of silver; superfluous display without regard to utility 
prevailed everywhere. e If it were in their power, I verily 
believe that some men would have the ground they walk 
on, 1 the walls of their houses, and perhaps even the sky 
and air, made of gold.' Clothes were in the opinion of 
Chrysostom a memorial of man's fall from that state of 
innocence in which they had been unnecessary, and were 
therefore to be made of as little consequence as possible. 
6 Say, ye who indulge in such grandeur as to discard all 
woollen garments and array yourselves in silk only, and 
have even advanced to such a height of madness as to 
weave gold into your robes (for most women do this), to 
what purpose do you deck out your persons in these things, 
not perceiving that the covering of dress was devised for 
us after the transgression in the place of a severe punish- 
ment ? ' 2 

The particular make of shoes worn by the fashionable 
young ladies and gentlemen of the day seems to have 
excited his special indignation. 6 To put silk threads into 
your boots, how disgraceful, how ridiculous ! 3 Ships are 
built, sailors hired, pilots appointed, the sails are spread, 
the sea crossed, wife, children, and home left behind, the 

1 In Coloss. Horn. vii. vol. xi. the first man as well as the first Era- 
p. 350. peror who ventured to wear a material 

2 Hom.xviii.inGrenes.vol.iv.p. 150. hitherto confined to female dress. See 

3 The use of silk seems from its Gibbon, vol. vii. c. 40, and his in- 
first introduction into the Empire to teresting account of the introduction 
have been regarded as the ne plus of si Ik- worms from China to Constan- 
ultra of luxury. It was condemned by tinople by some Persian monks in the 
Pliny, vi. 20, xi. 21. Elagabulus was reign of Justinian. 



Cn.XIV.] DENUNCIATIONS OF FASHIONABLE FOLLIES. 237 

country of the barbarian entered, and the life of the 
merchant exposed to a thousand perils, in order that 
after it all you may trick out the leather of your boots 
with these silken threads : what form of madness can be 
worse ?'....' He who ought to bend his thoughts and 
eyes heavenwards casts them down upon his shoes in- 
stead. His chief care, as he walks delicately through the 
Forum, is to avoid soiling his boots with mire or dust. 
Will you let your soul grovel in the mire while you are 
taking care of your boots ? Boots were made to be soiled ; 
if you cannot bear this, take them off and wear them on 
your head instead of on your feet. You laugh when I 
say these words, but I rather weep for your folly.' * Again, 
6 you~may see one sitting in his chariot with haughty brow, 
touching as it were the clouds in the senseless pride of 
his heart ; but think him not really lofty, for it is not 
the sitting up in a chariot drawn by mules, but only 
virtue mounting to the vault of Heaven which really 
elevates a man. Or if you see another on horseback, 
attended by a troop of lictors driving the multitude out 
of his way in the Forum, call him not happy on that 
account. How ridiculous ! why, prithee, do you drive your 
fellow creatures before you ? Were you made a wolf or a 
lion ? Your Lord Jesus Christ raised man to Heaven ; 
you do not condescend to share even the market-place 
with him. When you put a gold bit on your horse, a 
gold bracelet on your slave's arm, when your clothes even 
to your shoes are gilded, you are feeding that most fero- 
cious of monsters, avarice ; you are robbing the orphan, 
denuding the widow, and acting as the common enemy 
of all. When your body is committed to the ground the 
sight of your houses will not permit the memory of your 
ambition to be buried with you, but each passer-by, as he 
contemplates the height and size of your grand mansions, 

1 In Matt. Horn. xlix. vol. vii. p. 501. 



238 LITE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Cm XIV. 

will say to himself or his neighbour, " How many tears 
did it cost to build that house ! how many orphans were 
left naked ! how many widows wronged ! how many per- 
sons deprived of wages ! " Thus the exact contrary of 
what you expected comes to pass : you desired to obtain 
glory during your life, and lo ! even after death you are 
not delivered from accusers.' l / 

Such are the natural expressions of indignation on the 
part of one trained in a monkish school of piety and 
austere simplicity of life, when brought into practical con- 
tact with a corrupt civilisation. Every denunciation of 
inordinate luxury is coupled with an exhortation to the 
relief of distress. Almsgiving is represented as the one 
certain method of laying up treasure in Heaven, and the 
true riches are increased in proportion as this world's goods 
are given away. He lived in the days when social science 
and political economy did not exist ; he only perceived the 
moral wrong of profuse luxury and extreme destitution 
side by side, and the only method which he could suggest 
for rectifying the evil was to impress on the wealthy the 
duty of almsgiving on a large scale. Beggars swarmed 
in the streets, and thronged the entrances of the churches 
and public baths ; 2 and he is for ever exhorting his con- 
gregations to relieve these unfortunate people. All honour 
to his simple Christian charity ! though of course he could 
not have given worse advice with a view to curing the evil 
which he deplored. The man who wore shoes inwoven 
with silk or gold threads may have been a ridiculous fop, 
and yet have done more good by buying his finery, the 
produce of honest labour, than did the pious member of 
Chrysostom's congregation, who flung his money to the 
beggars congregated at the church doors. 

The luxurious habits and extravagant dress of the ladies 
were especial objects of Chrysostom's attack ; but he draws 

1 In Psalm xlviii. vol. v. p. 514. 2 Horn. i. de Lazaro, c. 8. 



(ii. XIV.] PORTRAIT OF A CHRISTIAN WIFE. 239 

a charming picture on the other side of the influence 
which good Christian wives might, and which many did, 
exercise upon their husbands. The close of the exhortation 
in our own 'Marriage Service' seems almost as if suggested 
by a passage in which he quotes Sarah the wife of 
Abraham as a pattern of dutiful obedience to her husband, 
as adorned with virtue, instead of the outward adorning 
of ' plaiting the hair and putting on of apparel.' ] ( The 
good wife, as she remains more at home than the man, and 
has more leisure for " pious contemplation " (<f)i\o<ro<j)ia) 9 
can calm and soothe the husband when he returns ha- 
rassed by business, cut off his superfluous cares, and so 
send him back free of the troubles contracted in the 
Forum, and carrying with him the good lessons which he has 
learned at home.' . . . ' No influence is more potent than 
that of a careful and discreet wife to harmonise and mould 
the soul of a man.' . . . c I could mention many hard, in- 
tractable men who have been softened in this manner.' 
And this influence would be in proportion to the Christian 
purity and simplicity of her own life. 6 When thy husband 
shall see thee modest, not a lover of ornament, not de- 
manding an unnecessary allowance, then he will listen to 
thy counsel. When you seek not gold or pearls, or costly 
array, but modesty, temperance, and benevolence, in pro- 
portion as you manifest these virtues yourself, you may 
demand them of him ; these are the ornaments which 
never fail to attract ; this is the adornment which old age 
does not dissolve or disease destroy.' . . . . ' When your 
husband sees you laying aside luxury, he will lay aside the 
love of gain, and will be more inclined to deeds of charity. 
With what face, ye wives, can you exhort your husbands 
to almsgiving, when you consume the largest portion of 
his means on the decoration of your own persons ? ' 2 

1 In Gen., Horn. xli. p. 382. 

2 In Joan. Horn. lxii. p. 340, and Horn. Ixix. p. 380. 



240 LIFE AKD TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XIY. 

He urgently represents to the wealthy proprietors of 
land in the country the solemn duty incumbent on them 
of providing for the spiritual welfare of the people on 
their estate, by building a church and maintaining a pastor 
among them. e There are many who possess farms and 
fields, but all their anxiety is to make a bath-house to 
their mansion, to build entrance courts and servants' 
offices ; but how the souls of their dependants are culti- 
vated they care not.' . . . ' If you see thorns in a field, you 
cut them down and burn them ; but when you see the souls 
of your labourers beset with thorns and cut them not down, 
tell me, do you not fear when you reflect on the account 
which will be exacted from you for these things ? Ought 
not every Christian estate-holder to build a church and 
to make it his aim before all things else that his people 
should be Christian ?'...' Therefore I exhort, I suppli- 
cate as a favour, or rather I affirm it as a principle, that 
no one should be seen in possession of an estate which is 
not provided with a church.' He concludes by drawing a 
pleasing picture of the benefit derived from the residence 
of a pastor in the quiet country village ; the softening, 
humanising, civilising effect of his presence ; the relief 
given to the needy, the comfort to the sick and dyiug ; 
the pleasant repose which the proprietor may enjoy when 
he withdraws for a time from the turmoil of city life, and 
worships among his grateful people in the church which 
he has founded, and where his name will be blessed for 
many future generations. £ And think of the reward in 
Heaven ; Christ said, " If thou lovest me feed my sheep." 
If you were to see any of the royal sheep or horses desti- 
tute of shelter and exposed to attack, and were to house 
them, provide stabling for them, and appoint some one to 
tend them, with how great a gift would the sovereign 
requite you. And think you that if you fold Christ's 



Ch. XIV.] CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITIES. 241 

flock and set a sliejDherd over them, He will not do some 
great thing for yon ? ' l 

The responsibility indeed of every Christian man to pro- 
mote the spiritual welfare of his brethren is one of the topics 
on which Chrysostom most constantly and earnestly dilates. 
1 Nothing can be more chilling than the sight of a Christian 
who makes no efforts to save others. Neither poverty, nor 
humble station, nor bodily infirmity can exempt men and 
women from the obligation of this great duty. To hide 
our Christian light, under pretence of weakness, is as great 
an insult to God as if we were to say that He could not 
make his sun to shine.' * 

The practice of taking deep oaths on trivial matters 
appears to have been as prevalent at Constantinople as at 
Antioch, and equally to have excited the indignation of 
the Archbishop. 6 He would not cease to denounce this 
devilish habit, and that vehemently, lest he should incur 
the condemnation pronounced on Eli, who rebuked, but 
not with sufficient severity. He would unsparingly repel 
from the threshold of the Church any who persisted in 
this pernicious vice, were he emperor or prince. Men 
might deride his vehemence, but they forgot that he was 
only the servant of Jesus Christ ; their mockery fell on the 

1 In Act. Apost. p. 147 et seq. Tonstal, Bp. of Durham, he declares 

2 Horn. xx. in Act. Apost. p. 162. that he could have written Letter 
This set of fifty-five Homilies on the matter himself even when ' ebrius ac 
Acts of the Apostles, of which much stertens.' But most persons familiar 
use is made in this chapter, was de- with Chrysostom's productions will 
livered in A.r>. 400, between Easter agree with Montfaucon and Savile that 
and Whitsuntide, in which interval it these homilies could have flowed only 
was customary to read through the from that golden vein, though the ore 
Acts in the Lessons for the day: vide is not so much refined as usual, and 
Bingham, vol. iv. These homilies are that some passages are in his very 
among the least polished of Chrysos- best style. None of his homilies, 
tom's productions. Erasmus, who except those on the Statues and St. 
translated them into Latin, was tho- Matthew, contain more curious reve- 
roughly disappointed and out of hu- lations of the manners and customs 
mour with them, and even doubts of the age. 

their authenticity. In a letter to 



242 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XIV. 

Master rather than the minister. Let them laugh and 
jest as much as they would; he was placed there to suffer 
it. " Obey my voice or depose me from this my office. I 
cannot consent to mount this throne unless I accomplish 
something great. If I cannot do this, it were better for 
me to stand below. As long as I sit here I cannot refrain, 
not so much out of fear of punishment to myself as on 
account of your salvation, which I earnestly desire." ' l 

Immoderate addiction to the pleasures of the table is a 
frequently recurring subject of censure. He depicts in 
lively terms the freshness, activity, and good health of the 
temperate man ; the lethargy, the headaches, the cramps, 
the gout, the sickness of the glutton. Here is his portrait 
of a fat gourmand : — 4 To whom is not the man disagreeable 
who makes obesity his study, and has to be dragged about 
like a seal ? I speak not of those who are such by nature, 
but of those who, naturally graceful, have brought their 
bodies into this condition through luxurious living. The 
sun has risen, he has darted everywhere his brilliant rays, 
he has roused everyone to his work : the tiller has taken 
his hoe, the smith his hammer, each workman his proper 
tool ; the woman sets to work to spin or weave ; while he 
like a hog goes forth to the occupation of filling his 
stomach, seeking how to provide for a costly table. When 
the sun has filled the market-place, and other men have 
already tired themselves with work, he rises from his bed, 
stretching himself like a fatting pig. Then he sits a long 
time on his. couch to shake off the drunkenness of the 
previous evening, after which he adorns himself and walks 
out a spectacle of ugliness, not so much like a man as a 
man-shaped beast.' . . . 6 Who might not justly say, " this 
fellow is a burden to the earth ; he lias come into the 
world in vain ; nay, not in vain, alas ! but to the damage 
of himself, as well as to the injury of others ? " ' 2 
1 In Act. Apost. pp. 7i and 98. 2 Ibid. p. 256. 



Cn. XIV.] CHARACTER OF CHRYSOSTOMS FLOCK. 243 

Such passages as these prove that the power of Chry- 
sostoni to captivate his hearers consisted not always in 
eloquence or ornate rhetoric, but in a kind of bold and 
rough plain-speaking, which dragged out into broad day- 
light the most flagrant evils of the time, and painted them 
in strong coarse colours, to excite derision or disgust. 
But the fickleness and impulsiveness of the people were 
fatal obstacles to the retention of fixed and durable im- 
pressions. The population upon whom Chrysostom poured 
forth his streams of exhortation or invective was even more 
debased than that to which Savonarola preached ; not so 
earnest, not so homogeneous, not so much animated by a 
sentiment of citizenship, not under the refining influence 
of a taste for literature and art. 1 It was a vast, disorderly 
medley of elements, without coherence, destitute of those 
political privileges, and of that industrial commercial 
spirit, which inspire the character with manly energy and 
independence. A passionate, invincible love of pleasure, 
an abandoned devotion to public amusements of a quality 
which in no way appealed to the intellect, and were cal- 
culated to debase and relax the finer moral feelings, these 
were insuperable bars to the substantial success of the 
Christian reformer. A large proportion of his hearers seem 
to have listened to his discourses as pleasant exhibitions 
of bold satire and eloquent declamation ; they applauded, 
they laughed, they wept, they were smitten with something 
like compunction ; and Chiwsostom confesses that at the 
moment he could not repress a natural feeling of gratifica- 
tion at the effect produced ; but that when he went home, 
and reflected that the benefit which his hearers should 
have derived generally evaporated in empty applause, 
instead of manifesting itself in some solid improvement, 
he wept and groaned from vexation. What men learned 
in the church was undone in the theatre : ' his work was 

J See Yillari's Life of Savonarola, b. i. c. 3. 
e 2 



244 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XIV. 

like that of a man who attempted to clean a piece of 
ground into which a muddy stream was constantly 
flowing.' ! 

His letters to individuals, and the eulogia which he passes 
at the beginning of some of his homilies on the zeal, piety, 
and attention of his flock, prove that there were bright 
exceptions, but the mass of the people remained irre- 
claimable. On grand festivals, such as Easter Day, vast 
crowds attended the church ; the very precincts were 
thronged, and the multitude surged backwards and for- 
wards like the waves of the sea. A large portion was com- 
posed of the fashionable and rich ; but Chrysostom greatly 
preferred those smaller congregations, consisting chiefly 
of poor, who attended regularly, and on whose attachment 
to the Church he could depend. He enjoyed these quiet 
services, free from the bustle and disturbance of large 
crowds. 2 The wealthy and the gay spared little time for 
the services of the Church, though they never pleaded 
business as an excuse to avoid attendance at the theatre. 
If they came now and then, they did so as a kind of con- 
descension and favour shown to God and his priest. They 
lazily slumbered, or idly gossipped during the service ; 
yet they boasted of their attendance afterwards. 3 

After the account in previous chapters of Chrysostom's 
method of dealing with the prevalent heresies of the day 
at Antioch, there ..is no occasion to say much more. The 
same forms of error had to be encountered at Constanti- 
nople by much the same arguments. Only one, Novatian- 
ism, appears to have been more prominent in this city 
than at Antioch. The exclusive pretensions to purity of 
doctrine and moral life made by the Novatians, excited 
his special indignation. c What arrogance ! what boast- 
fulness is this ! Can you, being a man, call yourself clean ? 

1 In Act. Apost. p. 191. initio. 

2 Horn, in Inscrip. Altaris, i. in 3 In Act. Apost. pp. 189, 190. 



On. XIV.] NOVATIANS AND ARIAJSTS. 245 

Nay, what madness is it ? As well call the sea free from 
waves ; for as waves never cease to move on the sea, so do 
sins never cease to work in ns.' l The harshness of the 
Novatians, in refusing the re-admission of apostates on 
repentance, was peculiarly offensive to his merciful and 
hopeful view of human nature. Sicinnius, the ISTovatian 
bishop in Constantinople, wrote a book against him, in 
which he makes capital of particular expressions in Chry- 
sostom's homilies detached from their context ; such as, 
' Repent a thousand times, and enter the Church ; ' . . . 
4 let the unclean person, the adulterer, the thief, enter ; ' 
but omitting the words which follow : * that he may learn 
to do these things no more. I draw all, I throw my net 
over all, desiring to catch not those only who are sound, 
but those who are sick.' 2 A hopefulness and love, which 
never despaired of the sinner, are eminently characteristic 
of Chrysostom ; and the strong words of encouragement 
and comfort which he used were of course susceptible of a 
construction injurious to him, by those who prided them- 
selves on enforcing a very rigid standard of moral and 
ecclesiastical discipline. 

Twenty years had elapsed since Gregory of Nazianzum, 
with much reluctance and trembling, had accepted the See 
of Constantino pie. The city was at that time a very strong- 
hold of Arianism. Arians had held the see for nearly 
forty years. The services of the orthodox were held in a 
private house, and were at first exposed to violent dis- 
turbance from the populace, which, hounded on by the 
Arian clergy, shouted and threw stones. But the elo- 
quence, combined with the holiness, of Gregory had 
smoothed down this violent opposition. The ranks of the 
orthodox were swelled, and the little house was enlarged 

1 Vol. xii. Horn. vi. adv. Cath. may estimate the man from the ac- 
pp. 143 and 491. count by Socrates, his admirer, who 

2 Vol. xii. Horn, i., 'Quod fre- relates a number of his so-called wit- 
quenter,' etc. Socrates, vi. 22. If vre ticisms, the book is no great loss. 



246 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Oh. XIV. 

into a noble church, under the name of Anastasia, as 
significant of the revival of the true faith. 1 Imperial 
authority completed the work which Gregory had begun. 
The Arians and other sectaries were prohibited by various 
enactments from assembling for worship within the city 
walls. 2 In the time of Chrysostom they began again to 
molest the peace of the faithful. On Saturdays and Sun- 
days they made a practice of assembling in colonnades 
and public places, and there loudly singing Arian songs — 
songs, that is, embodying Arian doctrine, like the Thalia 
composed by Arius ; abstract statements of theology, very 
unpoetical in form, very incapable, as we should have 
supposed, of exciting popular feeling. This noisy singing 
went on during the greater part of the night ; at dawn they 
marched through the streets singing antiphonalJy, and 
then held assemblies for worship outside the gates. Chry- 
sostom, with more of zeal perhaps than wisdom, organ- 
ised antagonistic processions of antiphonal singers ; the 
Empress supplied them with tapers mounted on silver 
crosses. Street frays were the inevitable consequence 
of these counter demonstrations ; the Arians took to 
their old practice of stone throwing ; Briso, one of the 
Emperor's chamberlains, was wounded by a stone in 
the forehead, and several persons killed on both sides, 
after which the Arian assemblies were suppressed by 
royal order. 3 

The practical energy of Chrysostom was not confined 
within the limits of his own diocese. He did not forget 
his native city, but laboured, and laboured successfully, to 
heal the schism by which the Church of Antioch had been 
so long distracted. Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria, 

1 Greg. De Vita sua, pp. 585-1097. Church, pp. 131, 132, for specimens of 
Orat. xxii., xxvii., xxxii. these Thalia; e.g. one commences, 

2 Vide Gibbon, v. p. 30. ' Where are those who say that the 
8 Socrates, yi. 8. Vide Stanley. East. Three are but one power?' 



On. XIV.] MISSIONS IX SCYTIIIA, SYRIA, PALESTINE. 247 

consented at his earnest request to join with him in the de- 
spatch of an embassy to Eome, to supplicate the recognition 
of Flavian as sole bishop. Acacius, Bishop of Bercea, and 
Isidore, for whom Theophilus had striven to obtain the 
See of Constantinople, were selected to carry the petition, 
and they returned with a favourable answer from the 
Bishops of the West. It is a satisfaction to find Chrysos- 
tom united in this charitable work with those who after- 
wards became his most malignant enemies. 1 

His missionary efforts extended northwards to the 
Danube, and southwards to Phoenicia, Syria, and Palestine. 
He sought out men of apostolic zeal to evangelise some 
Scythian tribes on the banks of the Danube, and ap- 
pointed a Gothic bishop, Unilas, who accomplished great 
things, but died in a.d. 404, when Chrysostom was in 
exile, and unable to appoint a successor. 2 A novel spec- 
tacle was witnessed one day in the Church of St. Paul. A 
large number of Goths being present, Chrysostom ordered 
some portions of the Bible to be read in Gothic, and caused 
a Gothic presbyter to address his countrymen in their 
native tongue. The Archbishop, who preached afterwards, 
rejoiced in the occurrence as a visible illustration of the 
diffusion of the Gospel among all nations and languages, 
a triumph before their very eyes over Jews and Pagans, 
and a fulfilment of such prophecy as, 'Their sound is 
gone out into all lands ; ' ' the wolf and the lamb shall 
feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.' 
' Where is the philosophy of Plato and Pythagoras ? Ex- 
tinguished. Where is the teaching of the tent-maker 
and the fisherman ? Not only in Judsea, but also among 
the barbarians, as ye have this day perceived, it shines more 
brilliantly than the sun itself. Scythians, and Thracians, 
Samaritans, Moors and Indians, and those who inhabit the 

1 Sozom. viii. e. 3. Socrat. v. 15. 2 Epist. xiv. vol. iii. 



248 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XIV. 

extremities of the world, possess this teaching translated 
into their own language ; they possess such philosophy as 
was never dreamed of by those who wear a beard and 
thrust passengers aside with their staff in the Forum, and 
shake their wise locks, looking more like lions than men.' 
. . . . ' Nay ! our world has not sufficed for these evange- 
lists ; they have betaken themselves even to the ocean, 
and enclosed barbarian regions and the British Isles in 
their net.' l Chrysostom assigned a church in Constanti- 
nople for the use of the Scythian inhabitants (probably 
Gothic, for the Greek historians used the word Scythian 
very vaguely), ordained native readers, deacons, and 
presbyters, and frequently preached there himself through 
the medium of an interpreter. 8 Some of his letters when 
in exile are addressed to Gothic monks, who occupied the 
house where Promotus had lived. 3 They were staunch 
friends to him during his exile, and the monastic body 
established in this house existed in the seventh cen- 
tury. 

Porphyry, Bishop of Gaza, wrote a letter to Chrysostom 
in a.d. 398, urging him to obtain an order from the 
Emperor for the destruction of Pagan temples in that city. 
Chrysostom did not cease to solicit Eutropius till he had 
procured an edict, not indeed for the destruction, but for 
the closing of the temples, and the demolition of the idols 
which they contained. In the following year, however, 
a.d. 399, an edict was issued addressed to Eutychianus, 
Prefect of the East, directing that the temples should be 
demolished throughout the country. This appears to 
have been obtained chiefly through the influence of Chry- 
sostom ; and large bodies of monks were sent by him into 
Phoenicia, where especially Paganism prevailed, who were 
to use every effort to extirpate it, both by assisting in the 

1 Vol. xii. Hum. viii. 2 Thcod. v. 30. 

8 Epist. xiv. and ccvii. 



Cn. XIV.] MISSIONS IX SCYTIIIA, SYRIA, PALESTINE. 249 

destruction of temples, and by the propagation of Christian 
truth. The money required for this missionary expedition 
was supplied by the liberality of some ladies in Con- 
stantinople, rich not only in faith, but also in the wealth 
of this world. The welfare of these missionary projects 
continued, as will hereafter be seen, to engage his most 
solicitous attention throughout his exile to the very close 
of his life. 1 

1 Theod. v. 29. Tillemont, xi. p. loo. 



250 LIFE AND TBIES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XV. 



CHAPTEE XY. 

THE FALL OF EUTROPIUS HIS RETREAT TO THE SANCTUARY OF THE 

CHURCH RIGHT OF SANCTUARY MAINTAINED BY CHRYSOSTOM — 

DEATH OF EUTROPIUS REVOLT OF GOTHIC COMMANDERS TRIBIGILD 

AND GAINAS DEMAND OF GAINAS FOR AN ARIAN CHURCH REFUSED 

BY CHRYSOSTOM — DEFEAT AND DEATH OF GAINAS. A.D. 399-401. 

The Empress Eudoxia had rejoiced to discover that the 
new Archbishop, although he mainly owed his promotion 
to the supreme minister of the Court, was by no means 
disposed to be ruled by him. If, indeed, Eutropius had 
expected to be rewarded for the elevation of Chrysostom 
by finding in him a complaisant servant, he sustained a 
severe disappointment. Some little pretences which the 
minister made of assisting the Church, by patronising 
Chrysostom's missionary projects, could not disguise the 
iniquitous venality of his administration, or protect him 
from the solemn warnings and severe censure of one who 
was no respecter of persons. In fact, when the Arch- 
bishop declaimed against the cupidity, injustice, and ex- 
tortions of the rich, it was obvious to all that Eutropius 
was the most signal example of those vices. Eudoxia 
was anxiously aiming to compass the fall of the detested 
minister; detested by her more especially, not only be- 
cause he thwarted her influence with Arcadius generally, 
but had also persuaded him to withhold from her the 
title of Augusta until she should present a male heir to 
the throne. She spared no pains therefore to conciliate 
the Archbishop, who might prove a valuable ally to her 
cause. It has been seen with what an appearance at 



Oil XV.] EUTROPIUS MADE CONSUL. 251 

least of humble piety slie took part in the nocturnal 
procession which conducted some sacred reliques to their 
resting-place outside Constantinople. 

Her chamberlain, Amantius (himself distinguished for 
unaffected Christian piety), was the frequent bearer to the 
Archbishop of her liberal contributions to the support of 
churches, or the relief of the poor. With her own hands, 
it is said, she traced designs for basilicas to be erected at 
her expense in some of the country districts. 1 Chrysostom 
was always ready to welcome as genuine any manifesta- 
tions of religious feeling. Such practical proofs of her 
attachment to the Church completely overcame him, and 
for the present his rich vocabulary could hardly furnish 
language adequate to express his admiration and grati- 
tude. 2 

Meanwhile, the poor doomed minister, not content to 
remain as he began, enjoying the reality of power without 
the name, prepared the way for his own destruction by 
inducing the Emperor to bestow on him the titles of 
Patrician and Consul. The acquisition of these venerated 
and venerable names by the eunuch slave caused a pro- 
found 'emotion of indignation and shame throughout the 
Empire, but especially in the Western capital, where they 
were bound np with all the most noble and glorious 
memories in the history of the nation. It is true the con- 
sulship was now an empty honour, destitute of all the great 
duties and responsibilities which formerly were attached 
to it. But the year was still named after the consul, 
and the character of the man was by a superstitious 
feeling projected on to the year which he inaugurated. 
The name of the odious Eutropius, eunuch and slave, if 

1 Marc. Diac. ap. Baron, an. 401, 49. after his return from his first exile, 

2 Vol. xii.471. The B titles 'mother vol. iii. p. 446. M. Thierry has erro- 
of churches,' ' nurse of monks,' 'staff of neously introduced them into this 
the poor,' etc. were not bestowed till earlier stage of his life. 



252 LIFE AND TBIES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XV. 

prefixed to the year, would seem to overshadow it with a 
kind of ominous and baleful blight, and to be in itself a 
portent of incalculable disaster. In short, after their 
indignation had vented itself in much bitter sarcasm, the 
Romans resolved that the consulship of Eutropius should 
never be inscribed at the Capitol. A solemn deputation 
from the people and senate waited on Honorius and 
Stilicho at Milan, to submit their decision, and to implore 
the imperial assent. Their spokesman recounted the 
glorious exploits of Theodosius and (by a flattering cour- 
tesy) of his son. The Saxon by the ocean, defeated, 
Britain delivered from the Picts, Gaul protected from the 
menaces of Germany ! ' Through thee Rome beholds the 
Frank humbled at her feet, the Suevian discomfited, and 
the Rhine, submissive to thy rule, salutes thee under the 
name of Germanicus. But the East, alas ! envies us our 
prosperity ; abominable conspiracies are fermenting there 
which tend to break up our unity '..... the revolt of 
Gildo, the destruction of African towns, the famine of 
Rome, all these calamities were the work of Eutropius, 
and for these he was rewarded with the consulship ! 
The East, accustomed to stoop under the sceptre of 
women, might accept the rule of an eunuch slave ; but that 
to which the Orontes and the Halys submitted as ordinary 
custom would be a foul stain on the waters of the Tiber. 
The image of Eutropius should never be placed in the 
same rank with those of iEniilius, of Decius, of Camillas, 
the saviours and supporters of their country, the cham- 
pions of Roman freedom ! . . . c Rise from your tombs, 
ancient Romans, pride of Latium; behold, an unknown 
colleague on your curule chairs; .rise and avenge the 
majesty of the Roman name ! ' l 

1 Claud, in Eutrop. lib. i. The personation of the city. Claudian was 
pathetic appeal is by Claudian put the intimate friend and companion of 
into the mouth of an allegorical im- Stilico, and may not improbably have 



&L XV.] INDIGNATION IN THE WEST. 253 

Honorius, prompted no doubt by Stilicho, accorded a 
favourable reply to the supplication of the Eoman people. 
Mallius Theodorus, prcetorian prefect of Italy, a man 
eminent in virtue and ability as lawyer, soldier, and 
writer, and not less popular than distinguished, was no- 
minated Consul by Honorius amidst general approbation, 
and his name appears in the Fasti of the West without a 
colleague. 1 

No doubt some of the virtuous indignation of the 
Romans is to be attributed to the jealousy which now 
ran high between East and West, but we may also not 
fancifully discern genuine sparks of the independent spirit 
of their forefathers. Amidst the general declension and 
degeneracy of the whole Empire, the West did not de- 
scend, could not have descended, to such depths of servile 
adulation as did the Byzantines on the occasion of the 
inauguration of Eutropius as Consul. When, arrayed in 
an ample Eoman robe, he assumed his seat in the palace 
of the Csesars, the doors were thrown open to an eager 
crowd of flatterers. The senate, the generals, all the 
high functionaries of the state, poured in to offer their 
homage to the great personage; emulated each other in 
the honour of kissing his hand, and even his wrinkled 
visage. They saluted him as the bulwark of the laws, 
and the parent of the Emperor. Statues of bronze or 
marble were placed in various parts of the city, repre- 
senting him in the costume of warrior or judge, and the 
inscriptions on their pedestals styled him third founder 
of the city after Byzas and Constantine. 

No wonder that Claudian declaimed with bitter sarcasm 
against ' a Byzantine nobility and Greek Quirites,' and 
even invokes Neptune by a stroke of his trident to unseat 

assisted at this audience. He is a of his day. 

valuable guide to the history of this J Gibbon, vol. v. p. 361. Claudian, 

period, and especially as an indicator De Consul. Mall. Theod. 

of public opinion on the great events 



254 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XV. 

and submerge the degenerate city which had inflicted 
snch a deep disgrace upon the Empire. 1 

And in truth a blow of no mean force, though directed 
not by the hand of a mythic deity, but of a stout bar- 
barian, was about to descend on the Eastern capital. 
The consequences of it were averted only by the sacrifice 
of the new consul who had chiefly provoked it; upon 
him it came with crushing effect : he fell never to rise 
again. In the final scene of this curious drama the 
Archbishop plays a conspicuous part, and therefore it 
must be unfolded from the beginning. But, independently 
of this, it throws light upon the condition of the Eastern 
Empire at that period. 

Tribigild, a Gothic soldier of distinction, had been, 
according to a usage now prevalent, promoted to the rank 
of Tribune, and placed in command of a military colony of 
Gruthongi (a large branch of the Ostrogoths), established 
in the region of Phrygia, near the town of Nacolea. 
The recent elevation of Alaric to the rank of Commander- 
in-chief of the Eoman forces in the East had encouraged 
the pretensions and raised the expectations of all bar- 
barian commanders. In the February or March next 
after the appointment of Eutropius to the consulship, 
Tribigild appeared at court to solicit promotion for himself 
and a higher rate of pay for his martial colonists, who, too 
ignorant or too proud to maintain themselves by culti- 
vating* the soil, were perishing of hunger in the midst of 
the most productive regions of Asia Minor. His suit 
was one among many of similar applications at that time 
constantly brought before the Court, and it was coldly dis- 
missed by the Emperor's minister. Tribigild was not one 
to return home and brood in sullen and ineffective silence 
over his repulse. Gainas, the Gothic leader, to whom it 
will be remembered Stilicho had confided the task of 

1 In Eutrop. ii. 39, 136. 



Cn. XV.] TRIBIGILD REVOLTS. 255 

putting Rufinus to death, was still in Constantinople ; and 
lie was a relation of Tribigild, who found in him a sym- 
pathiser to inflame rather than soothe his sense of wrong. 
In this irritated frame of mind, like a train of powder 
only needing the application of a match to produce an 
explosion, he returned to Phrygia. According to Claudian, 
that match was applied by his wife. He dramatically 
describes her welcome of the returning husband : ' she 
flies to meet him, embraces him with her snow-white 
arms, and eagerly inquires what honours or rewards he 
brings back from the generous prince.' When the chief- 
tain relates his ineffectual errand, and the cold disdain 
with which he had been treated by Eutropius, the chief- 
tainess tears her face with her nails, and bids her 
husband with bitter irony sheathe his sword and attend 
to his plough or his vine. She contrasts her own con- 
dition with the happy wives and sisters of other warriors ; 
they enjoyed rich spoils in the shape of adornments or of 
beautiful Grecian handmaids. ' Alaric, who broke treaties, 
was rewarded for it, but those who observed them re- 
mained poor. Alaric invaded and pillaged Epirus, and 
was made commander of the forces; you go humbly to 
solicit your due and are repulsed. Enrich yourself with 
booty, and you will be a Roman citizen as soon as you 
please.' 1 No doubt this scene, whether wholly imaginary 
or not> faithfully represents the feelings which, since the 
fatal promotion of Alaric, must have encouraged treason- 
able designs on the part of many barbarian chiefs. At 
any rate, whether the resentment of Tribigild was in- 
flamed or not by the irony of his wife, he resolved to cast 
off allegiance to the Empire. He mustered his forces, 
which gladly abandoned their feeble attempts at hus- 
bandry to return to the more congenial pursuit of war and 
plunder. The rich country of Phrygia was rapidly over- 
Claud, in Eutrop. ii. 187 et seq. 



256 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XV. 

run, and some of the fortified towns, owing partly to the 
decay of their walls, were captured. All Asia Minor was 
convulsed with apprehension, and appealed to Constanti- 
nople for protection. 

Eutropius affected to treat the rebellion as a petty in- 
surrection, the suppression of which belonged rather to 
the judge armed with instruments of torture than to a 
military force. He declined the proffered assistance of 
Gain as, but secretly negotiated with Tribigild, in the hope 
of subduing him by means of promotion or of a bribe 
in money. The Goth, proud to have turned the tables 
upon the minister who had recently treated him with 
scorn, stedfastly declined to accept any satisfaction but 
one — the head of Eutropius himself. Thus war was in- 
evitable ; but who was to conduct it ? Eutropius dared 
not trust Gainas to act against bis own countryman and 
kinsman. He retained him therefore at Constantinople in 
command of the city troops, and committed the manage- 
ment of the legions to one of his favourites, Leo, de- 
scribed by Claudian as a man 6 abounding in flesh, but 
scant of brains : ' ] once a wool-carder, but, under the admi- 
nistration of the eunuch, a military commander. His 
obesity made him an object of derision to the army, and, 
joined to his natural incapacity and ignorance, rendered 
him the most unfit man to conduct an expedition against 
the subtle and active barbarian. Leo crossed the Bos- 
phorus with a large, ill-disciplined army, whose approach 
was welcomed by the devastated provinces, which vainly 
rejoiced at the prospect of speedy deliverance from the 
ravager. The enemy, meanwhile, had retreated south- 
wards through Pisidia, and after a narrow escape from 
destruction in the defiles of Mount Taurus, where the 
inhabitants made a fierce stand, he emerged into Pam- 
phylia, and awaited Leo in the vast plain of the Eury- 

1 In Eutrop. ii. 377. 



Cir. XV.] HE DEFEATS LEO. 257 

medon and Melas, which extends "between the chain of 
Taurus and the sea. The doughty commander of the 
imperial forces eagerly pursued the Goths, and flattered 
himself, as the artful chieftain pretended to retreat in 
alarm, that he had cooped him up by the sea. In the 
confident anticipation of success, the discipliue, such as it 
was, of Leo's camp became still more relaxed. Little or 
no watch was kept; festivity, drunkenness, and disorder 
of all kinds prevailed; while the general had allowed 
himself to be drawn into a fatal position between a wary 
enemy in front and an impassable morass in his rear. In 
the depth of a dark night, the Goth swooped down upon 
his prey : all were asleep in the camp, the slumbers of 
many deepened by drunkenness. Those who were not 
killed 011 the spot fled in wild confusion, but only to 
flounder in the marsh, in the oozy bed of which large 
numbers were absorbed. A few scattered remnants reached 
the Bosphorus by devious routes, to carry tidings of the 
disaster to Constantinople. Leo himself had plunged on 
horseback into the morass ; the animal soon sank under 
the weight of his bulky rider, who, after vain struggles to 
extricate himself, was finally sucked beneath the quag. 
To such a bathos have the annals of Roman warfare 
descended ! A Roman general drowned in mud ! l 

The news of this overthrow struck panic into the popu- 
lation and Court of Constantinople. There was but one 
who rejoiced, for he perceived himself to be master of the 
situation. This was Gainas ; he was the only man 
at hand capable of confronting Tribigild, and he was 
despatched across the Bosphorus with his barbarian 
auxiliaries. But he did nothing to check the enemy, who 
had resumed his career of pillage. He represented that 
the forces opposed to him were insuperable, but expressed 

1 The above account is taken from Zosimus, lib. y. Claudian in Eutrop. ii. 
Thierry, ' Tuois Ministres, Eutrope.' 



258 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XT. 

a firm conviction that Tribigild would become as loyal a 
servant as himself on one condition— the surrender of the 
minister Eutropius, the principal author of all the evils of 
the State. 1 

Arcadius was placed in a state of cruel perplexity. We 
need not suppose that he was attached to Eutropius, but 
his weak and indolent nature shrunk from losing" that 
exemption from responsibility and labour which he enjoyed 
through the industry of his ambitious minister. Now, 
however, from all quarters the truth was forced upon him, 
that if he would save his throne, he must part with his 
newly made consul. Ugly rumours were prevalent that 
Stilicho was meditating a march to the East, and at the 
same time a new king, hostile to the Empire, had ascended 
the throne in Persia. 2 But a nearer and more persuasive 
enemy of Eutropius was at hand to give the finishing 
impulse to his fall. The profound jealousy of his power 
entertained by Euxdoxia has been already intimated. Not 
only had the title of Augusta been withheld from her 
through his influence, but he had even carried his arro- 
gance so far at this time as to declare that his hand which 
had elevated her, could also depose her from her present 
position altogether. The proud Erankish blood of the 
Empress could ill brook such words from the lips of an 
upstart menial, consul though he now was. With a pas- 
sionate gesture she dismissed him from her presence, 
hastened to her two young children, Flaccilla and Pul- 
cheria, and with them made her way into the apartment 
of Arcadius. To his enquiries as to the purpose of her 
sudden appearance she made at first no reply save by 
a flood of tears, in which the children, from natural 
sympathy, joined ; but presently, in language broken by 
sobs, she related a tale of insults received at the hands of 
Eutropius, and the crowning insult of the whole series. 

1 Zosim. v. 17- 2 Claud, in Entr. ii. 474 and 534, etc. 



Ch. XV.] EUTROPJUS DEGRADED. 259 

This was the blow which was completely to fell the totter- 
ing minister. He was summoned to the imperial pre- 
sence, and having been informed that he was deprived of 
his official dignity, and his property confiscated, he was 
commanded instantly to quit the palace under pain of 
death. 1 

The poor wretch, who had mounted from the lowest 
dregs of society to the grandest position a subject could 
occupy, was thus by a single blow suddenly reduced to 
the position from which he had started ; and even worse, 
for death stared him in the face. The bows and smiles 
with which most courtiers had greeted him that morning, 
when he was still the royal favourite, concealed, he well 
knew, a hatred and a scorn which were not confined to 
them, but animated the whole population, and only needed 
opportunity to declare themselves. That opportunity had 
come. He had no friends : whither should he fly? There 
was but one place to which he could in his extremity 
naturally turn — the sanctuary of the Church ; but here, 
by the cruel irony of his fate, a law emanating from him- 
self barred his entrance. 

The right of asylum, which was once possessed by many 
of the Pagan temples, passed over, by a natural transition 
about the time of Constantine, to Christian churches. 
However useful in ages of great rudeness and ferocity this 
right may be, either to shelter the innocent from lawless 
violence, or to give offenders protection from vindictive 
rage till the time of equitable trial, it inevitably becomes 
eventually an intolerable interference with the natural 
course of law and justice. Tiberius had found it ex- 
pedient to restrict or abolish such rights attached to many 
of the Greek and Asiatic temples. Their suppression was 
resisted partly from feelings of pride, partly of mercenary 
interest, partly of respect for the sanctity of the places, 

1 Philostorg. xi. 6. Zosim. v. 18. 
s 2 



260 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHEYSOSTOM. [Oh. XV. 

as in the cage in our own country of the sanctuary of 
Westminster. 1 In the reign of Theodosius I. a law was 
passed which excepted gross criminals and public debtors, 
and another in the reign of Arcadius, which excepted 
Jewish debtors who pretended to be Christians from the 
privileges of asylum ; 2 but by a law of September, a.d. 897, 
suggested by Eutropius, clergy and monks, in whose 
churches or convents fugitives might shelter, were obliged 
to surrender them to the officers of justice, though they 
might appeal to the Court in their favour. 3 The special 
object of Eutropius had been to cut off all retreat from 
the victims of his jealous ambition or avarice ; and now 
he was one of the first to want the protection which he 
had himself abolished. But he knew, no one better, that 
the law had excited much resentment and resistance on 
the part of the Church ; and it might well be that the 
Archbishop would gladly connive at the violation of the 
obnoxious measure by the very person who had framed it. 
He resolved to make the attempt. In the humblest guise 
of a suppliant, tears streaming down his puckered cheeks, 
his scant grey hairs smeared with dust, he crept into the 
cathedral, pushed aside the curtain which divided the 
chancel or sanctuary from the nave, and, clinging closely 
to the holy table, 4 awaited the approach of the Arch- 
bishop or any of the clergy. 5 The enemy was on his 
track. As he lay quaking with terror, he could hear on 
the other side of the thin partition the trampling of feet, 
mingled with the clattering of arms and voices raised in 
threatening tones by soldiers on the search. At this 
crisis he was found by the Archbishop, in a state of 
pitiable and abject terror; his cheek blanched with a 
death-like pallor, his teeth chattering, his whole frame 

1 Stanley, Appendix, ' Memorials 4 The altar was sometimes called 
of Westminster,' aavAos rpdirefc, Synesius, Ep. lviii. 

2 Cod. Theod. lib. ix. tit. 45. 5 Claud. Prolog, in Eutrop. ii. 25. 

3 Ibid. , Cbrysost. in Eutrop. 3. vol. iii. 



Cn. XV.] SEEKS ASYLUM IX THE CHURCH. 2G1 

quivering, as with faltering lips lie craved the asylum of 
the Church. 1 

He was not repulsed as the destroyer of that shelter 
which he now sought. Chrysostoin rejoiced in the oppor- 
tunity afforded to the Church of exhibiting at once her 
clemency and power, by taking a noble revenge upon her 
former adversary. The clamour of the soldiers on the 
other side of the veil increased. Chrysostoin led the un- 
happy fugitive to the sacristy ; and having concealed him 
there, he confronted his pursuers, asserted the inviolability 
of the Church's sanctuaiy, and refused to surrender the 
refugee. 6 None shall penetrate the sanctuary save over 
my body ; the Church is the Bride of Jesus Christ, who 
has entrusted her honour to me, and I will never betray 
it.' The soldiers threatened to lay violent hands on the 
Archbishop ; but he freely presented himself to them, and 
only desired to be conducted to the Emperor, that the 
whole affair might be submitted to his judgment. He 
was accordingly placed between two rows of spearmen, 
and marched like a prisoner from the cathedral to the 
palace. 2 

The populace meanwhile had heard of the wonderful 
event of the day. The news of the detested minister's 
degradation had circulated through the Hippodrome, where 
a grand performance had attracted large multitudes. The 
spectators rose in a mass, lifted a shout of exultation, and 
with loud vociferations demanded the head of the arch 
offender. 3 

Chrysostoin meanwhile maintained before the Emperor 
his lofty tone of authority in vindication of the Church's 
right of asylum. ' Human laws could not weigh in the 
balance against divine ; the very man who had assailed 
the Church's divine right was now forced, in his day of 

1 Chrjsost. in Eutrop. c. 2. 2 De Capto Eutrop. vol. iii, 

3 In Eutrop. i. 



262 LIFE AXD TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XV. 

distress, to plead in favour of it.' The Emperor was 
moved, as he always was by any one who possessed some 
of that force of character which he himself lacked. Some 
feelings of compassion also for his late minister's humi- 
liation may have mingled themselves with superstitious 
dread of incurring Divine wrath. He promised to respect 
the retreat of Eutropius. Bat, on learning his decision, 
the troops which were in the city became indignant, and 
furious in their demands that the culprit should be sur- 
rendered to justice. The Emperor made an address to 
them, entreating them even with tears to remember that 
they had received benefits as well as wrongs from the 
object of their present rage, and, above all things, im- 
ploring them to respect the sanctity of the holy table, to 
which the suppliant AYas clinging. By such words he 
restrained them with difficulty from the commission of any 
immediate violence. 1 

The following day was Sunday ; but the places of public 
amusement and resort were deserted, and such a vast con- 
course of men and women thronged the cathedral as was 
rarely seen except on Easter Day. 2 All were in a flutter 
of expectation to hear what the c golden mouth ' would 
utter, the mouth of him who had dared, in defence of the 
Church's right, to defy the arm of the law, and to stem 
the tide of popular feeling. But few perhaps were pre- 
pared to witness such a dramatic scene as was actually 
presented, and which gave additional force and effect to 
the words of the preacher. It was a common practice 
with the Archbishop, on account partly of his diminutive 
stature and some feebleness of voice, to preach from the 
< ambo,' or high reading-desk, which stood a little west- 
ward of the chancel, and therefore brought him into closer 
proximity with the people. 3 On the present occasion, he 
had jnst taken his seat in the ambo, and a sea of upturned 

1 De Capto Eutrop. c. 4. - In Eutrop. c. 3.. 3 Socrat. vi. 5. 



in. XV.] PROTECTED BY CHRYSOSTOM. 263 

faces was directed towards his thin pale countenance in 
expectation of the stream of golden eloquence, when the 
curtain which separated the nave from the chancel was 
partially drawn aside, and disclosed to the view of the 
multitude the cowering form of the unhappy Eutropius, 
clinging to one of the columns which supported the holy 
table. Many a time had the Archbishop preached to 
light minds and unheeding ears on the vain and fleeting 
character of worldly honour, prosperity, luxury, wealth ; 
now he would enforce attention, and drive his lesson home 
to the hearts of a vast audience, by pointing to a visi- 
ble example of fallen grandeur in the poor unhappy 
creature who lay grovelling behind him. Presently he 
burst forth : ' (i fjcaraior^s fxarcuoTrpwv ! — vanity of vani- 
ties ! " ' words how seasonable at all times, how pre-emi- 
nently seasonable now. ' Where now are the pomp and 
circumstance of yonder man's consulship? where his 
torch-lit festivities ? where the applause which once 
greeted him ? where his banquets and garlands ? Where is 
the stir that once attended his appearance in the streets, 
the flattering compliments addressed to him in the amphi- 
theatre ? They are gone, they are all gone ; one rude 
blast has shattered all the leaves, and shows us the tree 
stripped quite bare, and shaken to its very roots.' .... 
' These things were but as visions of the night, which fade 
at dawn ; or vernal flowers, which wither when the spring 
is past ; as shadows which flitted away, as bubbles which 
burst, as cobwebs which rent.' . . . ' Therefore we chant 
continuously this heavenly strain : jjucltcliottis /maraLOTrjTcou 
Kal irdvra fiaraior^s. For these are words which should 
be inscribed on our walls and on our garments, in the 
market-place, by the wayside, on our doors, but, above 
all, in the conscience of each should they be written, and 
constantly meditated.' Then, turning towards the pitiable 
figure by the holy table r ' Did I not continually warn 



264 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XV. 

thee that wealth was a runaway slave, a thankless servant? 
but thou wouldst not heed, thou wouldst not be per- 
suaded. Lo ! now experience has proved to thee that it 
is not only fugitive and thankless, but murderous also ; 
for this it is which has caused thee to tremble now with 
fear. Did not I declare, when you rebuked me for telling 
you the truth, " I love thee better than thy flatterers ; I 
who reprove thee care for thee more than thy complaisant 
friends ? " Did I not add that the wounds inflicted by a 
friend were to be valued more than the kisses given by an 
enemy ? If thou hadst endured my wounds, the kisses 
of thy enemies would not have wrought thee this destruc- 
tion.' . . . . ' We act not like thy false friends, who have 
fled from thee, and are procuring their own safety through 
thy distress ; the Church, which you treated as an enemy, 
has opened her bosom to receive thee ; the theatre, which 
you favoured, has betrayed thee, and whetted the sword 
against thee.' 1 'He thus depicted,' he said, 'the abject 
condition of the minister, not from any desire to insult the 
prostrate, not to drown one who was tossed on the billows 
of misfortune ; but to warn those who were still sailing 
witli a fair wind, lest they should be hurried into the same 
abyss.' ' Who had been more exalted than this man ? 
Had he not surpassed all in wealth ? had he not climbed 
to the very pinnacle of grandeur? yet now he had become 
more miserable than a prisoner, more pitiable than a 
slave.' .... 'It was the glory of the Church to have 
afforded shelter to an enemy ; the suppliant was the orna- 
ment of the altar. " What ! " you say, " is this iniquitous, 
rapacious creature an ornament to the altar ? " Hush ! the 
sinful woman was permitted to touch the feet of Jesus Christ 
Himself, a permission which excites not our reproach, but 
our admiration and praise.' .... The degradation of 
Eutropius was a wholesome example both to the rich and 

1 In Eubrop. c. 1. 



Oh. XV.] HIS SERMON OX EUTROPIUS. 265 

poor. ' Let some rich man enter the church, and he will 
derive much advantage from what he sees. The spectacle 
of one, lately at the pinnacle of power, now crouching 
with fear like a hare or a frog, chained to yonder pillar not 
by fetters, hut by fright, will repress arrogance, and 
subdue pride, and will teach him the truth of the Scripture 
precept : " All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as 
the flower of grass." On the other hand, let a poor man 
enter, and he will learn not to be discontented, or to 
deplore his lot ; but will be grateful to his poverty, which 
is to him as a most secure asylum, a most tranquil haven, 
a most impenetrable fortress.' 1 The Archbishop con- 
cluded by exhorting the people to mercy and forgiveness, 
following the example of their Emperor. c How else could 
they with a clear conscience join in the Holy Mysteries 
about to be celebrated, or join in the pra} r er : " Forgive 
us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against 
us ? " He did not deny that the offender had committed 
great crimes, but the present was a season not for judg- 
ment but for mercy. If they would enjoy the favour of 
God, who had declared, " I will have mercy and not sacri- 
fice," they would intercede with the Emperor for the life 
of their enemy. So would they obtain the mercy of God 
for themselves, and remission of their own sins ; so would 
they shed glory on their Church, and win the praise of 
their humane sovereign, while their own clemency would 
be extolled to the ends of the earth.' 

The people probably thought that sufficient mercy had 
already been exercised by respecting the asylum of the 
Church as against the law, and no further effort, so far as 
is known, was made on behalf of the fallen minister. He 
remained for several days more in sanctuary, and then 
secretly and suddenly quitted it. Whether he fled de- 
signedly, mistrusting the security of his retreat, perhaps 

1 In Eutrop. cc. 2-4. 



2G6 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Cb. XV. 

even, with the suspiciousness natural to a deceitful 
person, mistrusting the fidelity of his protectors, and 
hoping to make his escape from Constantinople in dis- 
guise ; or whether he surrendered himself on the condition 
that exile should be substituted for capital punishment, 
cannot with perfect certainty be determined. It is implied 
by one writer 1 that he was seized and forcibly removed from 
the sanctuary. Chrysostom, on the other hand, declares 
that he would never have been given up, had he not 
abandoned the Church. 2 However and wherever he may 
have been captured, some promise appears to have been 
made that his life at least should be spared. He was 
put on board a vessel which conveyed him to Cyprus, 
that island being designed, it was said, to be the place of 
his banishment for the remainder of his life. 3 But his 
enemies had determined that this life should be brief. A 
suit was instituted against him at Constantinople on a 
variety of charges, under the presidency of Aurelian, 
Praetorian Prefect. Over and above all his other crimes, 
he was found guilty of mingling with the ordinary costume 
of the consul certain ornaments or badges which belonged 
exclusively to the Emperors, and even of harnessing to 
his chariot animals of the imperial colour and breed. 
These were found to be treasonable offences, on the 
strength of which, in spite of some misgivings and hesi- 
tation on the part of Arcadius, which were overruled by 
Eudoxia and Gainas, the miserable culprit was recalled 
from Cyprus to Chalcedon, and there beheaded. As he 
entered that city, he might have seen affixed to the walls 
the imperial sentence, by the terms of which his property 
was declared confiscated to the State, his acts as consul 
were cancelled, the title of the year was changed, the world 
invited to rejoice at the purification of the consulship, 

1 Zosimus, v. 18, i^apTrdaaures. 2 De Cap. Eutrop. c. 1. 

3 Zosim. v. 18. 



Ch. XV.] DEATH OF EUTKOPIUS. 207 

and to cease to groan over the sight of the monstrosity 
which had disgraced and disfigured the divine honour of 
that sacred office. Finally, it was commanded that all 
statues or representations whatever of Eutropius in public 
places should be thrown down and broken to pieces. 1 

Thus the earnest desire of Eudoxia was accomplished : 
she remained mistress of the field, mistress, as she fondly 
hoped, of the Empire. The government for the present 
passed from the hands of an eunuch and slave into the 
hands of a woman. The possible rivals to her supremacy 
were the Gothic commander Gainas and the Archbishop. 
In what manner she was brought into hostile collision 
with these two very different personages remains now to 
be related. The Goth was determined in the ambitious 
pursuit of power, the Archbishop equally determined in 
the conscientious discharge of duty. The collision of the 
ruling powers with him was yet to come, but the contest 
with Gainas immediately succeeded the fall of Eutropius. 

The Empress procured the elevation of Aurelian, Prae- 
torian Prefect, to the consulship, and of her favourite 
(some said her criminal lover a ), Count John, to the office of 
Comptroller of the Royal Treasury, or sacred largesses. 
The public affairs of the Empire were discussed and settled 
in a sort of cabinet council by her and her friends, of whom 
three wealthy but avaricious ladies, Castricia, Eugraphia, 
and Marcia, were the most influential. The haughty and 
manly spirit of the Gothic warrior naturally disdained to 
be directed by a coterie of women. He united his army 
with that of Tribigild, and the two forces assumed a 
menacing attitude in the vicinity of Constantinople, on 
the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus. Gainas opened nego- 
tiations with the Emperor, refusing to communicate with 
any lesser power, complained that his services had been 

1 Zosim. v. 18. Cod. Theod. ix. 40, 17. Pkilostorg. xi. 6. 
2 Zosim. v. 18. 



268 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XV. 

inadequately requited, and demanded, as a preliminary 
to any further correspondence, the surrender of three prin- 
cipal favourites at Court — Aurelian the Consul, Saturninus 
the husband of Castricia, and the Count John. The em- 
barrassment of the Court was extreme ; but the three 
ministers, in a genuine spirit, to all appearance, of Roman 
courage and self-sacrifice for the good of the State, crossed 
the Bosphorus, and sent word to the camp of Gainas that 
they had come to surrender themselves into his hands. 
The chieftain subjected them to a grim practical jest. 
He caused them to be loaded with chains, and received 
them in his tent in the presence of an executioner. After 
all manner of insults had been heaped upon them, the 
executioner approached, and swung his sword over them 
with a furious countenance as if on the point of decapi- 
tating, but, checking the impending blow, only made a 
slight scratch on their necks so as just to draw blood. 
This savage farce having been performed, the three were 
simply detained in the camp without suffering farther 
violence. 1 

Chrysostom appears to have laboured diligently to 
mitigate the demands of Gainas. His language, in a 
homily delivered just after the surrender of the three 
captives, implies that some degree of success had attended 
his efforts, but it manifests also a feeling of great de- 
pression, caused by the unsettled, indeed anarchical, state 
of pu blic affairs. 

' After a long interval of silence, I return to you, my 
beloved disciples — a silence occasioned, not by any indif- 
ference or indolence, but by my absence spent in earnest 
endeavours to allay a tempest, and to bring into a haven 
those who were beginning to drown.' . . . ' For this pur- 
pose I have withdrawn from you for a time, going back- 
wards and forwards ' (sc. across the Bosphorus), ' exhorting, 

. i Zosim. v. 18. Socrat. vi. 6. Sozom. viii. 4. 



Cn. XV.] GAIXAS MADE CONSUL. 269 

beseeching, supplicating, so as to avert the calamity which 
was impending over the higher powers. But now that 
these dismal matters have been concluded I return to 
you.' .... He had gone to rescue those who were 
falling and tempest-tossed ; he came back to confirm 
those who were still standing and at rest, lest they should 
become victims of some calamity. ' For there is nothing 
secure, nothing stable in human affairs; they are like a 
raging sea, every day producing strange and fearful ship- 
wrecks. The world is full of tumult and confusion ; 
everywhere are cliffs and precipices, rocks and reefs, 
fearfulness and trembling, peril and suspicion. 'No one 
trusts anyone; each man is afraid of his neighbour. 
The time is at hand which the prophet depicted in those 
words : " Trust not in a friend, put not confidence in a 
guide " (Micah vii. 5) ; civil strife prevails everywhere, 
not honest open warfare, but veiled under ten thousand 
masks. Many are the fleeces beneath which are con- 
cealed innumerable wolves ; so that one might live more 
safely among enemies than among those who appear to 
be friends.' 1 

It is possible that the intercessions of Chrysostom may 
have saved the lives of the three captives, or averted any 
immediate assault of the Gothic army ; but Gainas was 
in a position to dictate any terms he pleased, and his 
army was like a great swelling wave, threatening at any 
moment to break and expend its force upon the capital. 
An interview with the Emperor, protected from any in- 
sidious attack by the solemn oath of each party, took 
place in the church of St. Euphemia, situated on a lofty 
eminence over the city of Chalcedon. The Gothic leader 
no longer pretended to disguise his ambitious designs. 
He demanded to be made Consul and Commander-in- 
chief of the Imperial army, cavalry and infantry, Roman 

1 Horn, cum Saturn, et Aurel. vol. iii. 



270 LIFE AND TDIE8 OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XV. 

as well as barbarian troops ; in short, be aspired to be 
in position the Stilicho of the East. The Emperor 
yielded to these ignominious terms, which in effect placed 
his capital at the mercy of a foreign invader. The troops 
were rapidly transported from the Asiatic side of the 
Bosphorus and occupied Constantinople. They waited 
but the word of their commander to fly upon the booty 
with which the wealthy and luxurious city teemed, and 
which they beheld with hungry eyes ; but for a time the 
signal was not given. 1 

Gainas, either from sincere attachment to the Arian 
form of faith, or possibly from ambition to display his 
power to his countrymen, who were mainly of the Arian 
persuasion, demanded the abolition of that law of Theo- 
dosius by which Arians were prohibited from public 
worship inside the city walls. He represented that it- 
was specially indecorous for the Commander-in-chief of 
the Imperial forces to go outside the city to pay his 
public devotions. Arcadius, intimidated and as usual on 
the point of yielding, referred the matter to the Arch- 
bishop. Chrysostom earnestly and indignantly depre- 
cated any concession; 'to give up one of the Catholic 
churches to the Arians would be to cast things holy to 
the dogs, and to reward the impious at the expense of 
the reverend worshippers of Jesus Christ.' He begged 
the Emperor to allow the whole matter to be discussed 
between himself and Gainas in the royal presence, when 
he trusted that, by the help of God, he should succeed in 
silencing the Gothic heretic, and in repressing any repe- 
tition of his profane demand. 2 Gainas was not averse 
from the interview ; he rather prided himself on his skill 
in theological debate, and boasted of having vanquished 
the monk Nilus on the question of the identity, or 

1 Socr. vi. 6. Sozom. viii. 4. Theod. v. 31. 
2 Sozom. viii. 4. Theod. v. 32. 



&L XV.] HIS CONTEST WITH CHRYSOSTOM. 271 

similarity, of substance in the first two Persons of the 
Hoi j Trinity. 1 The Emperor was well satisfied to act 
the part of a quiet, irresponsible auditor. Accordingly, 
on the following day, Chrysostom appeared at the palace, 
accompanied by all those bishops who were in Constanti- 
nople at the time. Gain as put forward his demand. 
The Archbishop replied that it was impossible for a 
prince who laid claim to piety to take any step adverse 
to the interests of the Catholic faith. If Gainas wished 
to worship inside the walls, all the churches in the city 
w T ere open to him. When the Goth claimed a right to 
possess one for his own sect, in consideration of his great 
services to the State, Chrysostom repelled the demand 
with indignant scorn. 'You have already rewards far 
exceeding your deserts ; you are Commander-in-chief and 
Consul. Consider what once you were, and what now 
you are ; consider your former destitution and your pre- 
sent abundance. Look at the magnificence of your con- 
sular robes, and remember the rags in which you crossed 
the Danube. Speak not then of ingratitude on the part 
of those who have laden you with honours. Eemember 
the oaths by which you swore fidelity to the great Theo- 
dosius and to his children. ' He then cited the prohibitory 
law issued by Theodosius in a.d. 381, called upon the 
Emperor to enforce it, and on the Gothic commander to 
observe it. The ecclesiastical historians concur in affirm- 
ing that the Goth was completely vanquished by the 
authoritative demeanour and eloquence of the Arch- 
bishop, and for the time at least desisted from pressing 
his demand ; but it appears that Arcadius was obliged to 
satisfy his rapacity by melting the plate of the Apostles' 
Church. 2 

Possibly, indeed, extortion of money had been the 

1 Nili Mon. Epist. i. 70, 79, 114, 2 Sozom. viii. 4. Socr. vi. 8. Theod. 

116, 205, 206, 2S6. y. 32. 



272 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSQSTOM. [Ch. XV. 

object of Gainas from tlie beginning in making bis demand 
for an Arian church. The plunder-loving spirit of his 
army was aroused, and the gold and silver visible on the 
counters of money-changers, and in the shops of wealthy 
jewellers, was a temptation constantly dangling before 
their eyes, till a rumour of violent intentions, or perhaps 
common prudence, caused the owners to remove these 
dangerous possessions into secret places of safety. If 
the enemy bad entertained any design upon the shops, it 
was transferred from them to the palace, upon which they 
made a nocturnal assault. According to some accounts, 
it was repulsed by the vigorous courage of the citizens, 
who fell with arms upon the assailants ; according to 
others, Gainas was scared in several attempts by a vision 
of an angelic host planted in bright array around the 
walls of the palace. 1 The materials for the history of 
these occurrences are so meagre that it is impossible 
to ascertain details, but, from whatever cause, Gainas 
resolved to escape from the city. Fearing that if he 
attempted to quit it openly with his troops, he might be 
forcibly stopped or impeded in his departure, he pre- 
tended to be under the influence of a demon, and that he 
desired to offer up prayers for relief from his affliction at 
the martyry of St. John at Hebdomon, seven miles outside 
Constantinople. 

As he was going out, however, by one of the gates on 
this pretext, the guards stationed at the gate perceived 
that his followers were taking with them a quantity of 
arms which they endeavoured to conceal. The guards 
refused to let them pass ; a fray ensued in which the 
guards were killed. The inhabitants were seized with 
mingled rage and terror. Gainas was declared by royal 
decree a public enemy. He himself was outside the 
walls, and the city gates were now all closed to cut off 

1 Sozoni. viii. 4. Socr. vi. 6. Z?sim. v. 19. 



Ch. XV. J FLIGHT OF GAINAS. 2 I 5 

him, and such forces as were with him, from those who 
were left inside Constantinople. A large number of these 
assembled in and around the church of the Goths. Here 
they were attacked by the infuriated populace, which 
set fire to the building. The Goths perished wholesale 
in the flames or by the sword. Ga'inas, with the re- 
mainder of his followers, betook himself to a life of 
plunder in the Thracian Chersonese. But he found the 
inhabitants generally prepared to offer a stout resistance 
to his pillaging bands, which were soon reduced to great 
straits for subsistence. Meanwhile, a countryman of his in 
Constantinople was organising measures for his destruc- 
tion. Fravitta was one of those Goths, of whom no doubt 
there were many, who had become assimilated to the peop 1 ^ 
among whom they lived. He had married a Eoman lady, 
and was eminent alike for refinement of manners, for 
valour in arms, and for honest fidelity to the government 
which he served. 1 He offered to lead out such forces as 
could be placed at his disposal, pledged himself to clear 
the Chersonesus of the rebels, and drive them, if neces- 
sary, beyond the Danube. The offer was accepted with 
joy, and Fravitta defeated the enemy in several engage- 
ments. Ga'inas attempted to cross the Hellespont, and 
throw his troops again into the fertile regions of Asia 
Minor ; but his flimsy fleet of hastily constructed rafts, 
being attacked by a well-managed body of galleys in the 
middle of the passage, was dispersed or broken in pieces, 
and a large part of his army was drowned. Ga'inas then 
determined, with the remnant of his followers, to beat a 
hasty retreat in the direction of the Danube, where he 
hoped to be joined by some of his own countrymen, and 
renew the offensive. The accounts of his march are not 
quite harmonious, and somewhat obscure. According to 
Zosimus, 2 he was hotly pursued by Fravitta from place to 

1 Eunap. Sard. Fragm. 60. Sozom. viii. 4. 2 Vide c. 21. 

T 



274 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XV. 

place, across the range of Hsenras up to the shores of the 
Danube, into the waters of which he plunged on horse- 
back, and with a scanty band of followers gained the 
opposite bank, intending thence to make his way to the 
settlements of his forefathers on the banks of the Prnth or 
Borysthenes. But his design was frustrated by an unex- 
pected enemy. The Huns occupied at that time the 
region immediately north of the Danube, and their king, 
Uldes or Uldin, was disposed to enter into friendly rela- 
tions with the Roman Empire. He took up the pursuit 
which Fravitta had abandoned at the river frontier, 
chased the unhappy Goth like a wild beast from one 
hiding-place to another, till at last the prey was caught 
and killed. His head was carried on the point of a lance 
to Constantinople, as a visible pledge of the good-will of 
the Hunnish chief. Sozomen and Socrates, 1 on the other 
hand, represent him to have been overtaken, routed, and 
slain by Roman troops in Thrace. 2 

Theodoret has a vague story of his own, that when 
Gainas was ravaging Thrace, neither warrior nor am- 
bassador could be found courageous enough to encounter 
him but Chrysostom, who, yielding to the public appeal, 
set forth to intercede, and was most respectfully received 
by the barbarian, who placed the right hand of the Arch- 
bishop on his own eyes, and brought his children to his 
knees, it may be presumed to receive his blessing. 
Theodoret does not venture to affirm that the mission 
availed to induce the Goth to lay down his arms, and the 
whole story has an unreal and romantic character. 3 

Three aspirants to the absolute control of the Eastern 
Empire, widely different in race, character, and original 

J Sozom. viii. 4. Socr. vi. 6. on which his head was brought into 

2 The Alexandrian Chronicle is Constantinople. This certainly leaves 

precise in fixing Dec. 23, a.d. 400, as a very insufficient interval for the 

the date of his defeat on the Helles- events recorded in Zosimus. 
pont, and Jan. 3, a.d. 401, as the day 3 Vide c. 33. 



On. XV.] HIS DEFEAT AND DEATH. 275 

condition of life — Rufinus, Eutropius, Gamas — had alike 
perished by a violent death. Fravifcta was made consul, 
but he was too loyal or too unambitious to go beyond the 
line of his legitimate power. Eudoxia now stood without 
a rival in the management of the Emperor and the 
kingdom. Her influence over her husband was enhanced 
by the birth of a male heir to the throne, the prince after- 
wards Theodosius II. ; and thus the final obstacle was 
removed to her being solemnly proclaimed Empress 
under the venerable title of Augusta. 



T 2 



276 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST, CHKYSOSTOM. [Ch. XVI. 



CHAPTEE XVI. 

CHRYSOSTOM'S VISIT TO ASIA — DEPOSITION OF SIX SIMONIACAL BISHOPS 
— LEGITIMATE EXTENT OF HIS JURISDICTION — RETURN TO CONSTAN- 
TINOPLE — RUPTURE AND RECONCILIATION WITH SEVERIAN BISHOP 
OF GABALA — CHRYSOSTOM'S INCREASING UNPOPULARITY WITH THE 
CLERGY AND WEALTHY LAITY — HIS FRIENDS — OLYMPTAS THE DEA- 
CONESS FORMATION OF HOSTILE FACTIONS, WHICH INVITE THE 

AID OF THEOPHILUS, PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA. A.D. 400, 401. 

Up to this point the episcopal career of Chrysostom may 
be pronounced eminently successful. He had distinguished 
himself not only as a vigorous reformer of ecclesiastical 
discipline, an eloquent master of pure Christian doctrine, 
and preacher of lofty Christian morality, but he had done 
good service to the State ; and even while he upheld with 
inflexible firmness the full rights of the Church, he had 
not by overbearing or haughty independence forfeited 
the good-will, respect, and admiration of the Emperor 
and Eudoxia. But now the horizon gradually darkens. 
We have to begin unravelling a long roll of troubles, to 
trace a series of subtle intrigues, against which the single- 
minded honesty of Chrysostom was ill-matched, ulti- 
mately bringing about his degradation, exile, and death. 
We are fortunate in possessing, to guide us among these 
complicated proceedings, the narrative of one who was 
not only an eye-witness, but an actor in many of the 
scenes which he relates. 1 

In the Spring of the year a.d/400, during the military 

1 Palladius, author of the Dialogue the same Bishop of Hellenopolis who 

prefixed to Mi gne's edition of Chry- wrote the Lausiaca, vide Tillemont, xi. 

sostom's works. On the debated ' Vie de Pallade.' 
question whether this Palladius was 



Cii. XVI.] THE AFFAIR OF ANTONINUS. 277 

usurpation of Gainas, twenty-two prelates had assembled 
in Constantinople to confer with, the Archbishop on eccle- 
siastical business. 1 Palladius has mentioned the names of 
a few, Theotimus from Scythia, Amnion an Egyptian 
from Thrace, Arabianus from Galatia. One Sunday 
when the conclave was sitting, Eusebius, Bishop of Valen- 
tiuopolis in Asia, apparently not himself a member of the 
synod, entered the place of assembly, and presented a 
document addressed to the Archbishop as President, which 
contained seven grave charges against Antoninus, Bishop 
of Ephesus : ' He had melted down some of the sacred 
vessels to make plate for his son; he had transferred 
some of the marble at the entrance of the baptistry to his 
own bath ; he had placed some fallen columns which 
belonged to the church in his own dining-room ; he had 
retained in his employment a servant who had committed 
murder ; he had taken possession of some property in 
land which had been left to the Church by Basilina, the 
mother of Julian ; he had resumed intercourse with his 
wife, and had children born to him after his ordination ; 
lastly, the worst offence of all, he had instituted a regular 
system of selling bishoprics on a scale proportioned to the 
revenue of the sees.' Chrysostom probably perceived, or 
suspected from the eagerness of the accuser, that he 
entertained some personal animosity towards the ac- 
cused. He replied with calmness and caution : c Brother 
Eusebius, since accusations made under the ■ influence of 
distressed feelings are often not easy to prove, let me 
beseech you to withdraw the written accusation, while we 
endeavour to correct the causes of your annoyance.' 
Eusebius waxed hot, and repeated his tale of charges 
with much vehemence and acrimony of tone. The hour 

1 There was in fact what might be the Patriarch being ex officio Presi- 
called a floating synod of this kind dent. — Tillemont, xv. 703, 704. 
always in existence in Constantinople; 



278 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHEYSOSTOM. [Ch. XVI. 

of service was approaching; Chrysostom committed to 
Paul, Bishop of Heraclea, who appeared friendly to Anto- 
ninus, the task of attempting to conciliate Eusebius, 
and passed with the remainder of the prelates into the 
cathedral. 

The opening salutation, ' Peace be with you,' was pro- 
nounced by the Archbishop as he took his seat in the 
centre of the other bishops, ranged, according to custom, 
on either side of him round the wall of the choir or 
tribune. The service was proceeding, when, to the 
amazement alike of the clergy and the congregation, 
Eusebius abruptly entered the choir, hurried up to the 
Archbishop, and again presented the document of charges, 
adjuring him by the life of the Emperor and other tre- 
mendous oaths to attend to its contents. From the agita- 
tion of his manner, the people imagined that he must be 
a suppliant entreating the Archbishop to intercede with 
the Emperor for his life. To avoid a disturbance in the 
face of the congregation, Chrysostom received the paper 
of charges, but when the lessons for the day had been 
read, and the Liturgy of the Faithful (Missa Fidelium) 
was about to commence, he desired Pansophius, Bishop of 
Pissida, to ' offer the gifts,' and, with the rest of the 
prelates, quitted the church. His serenity of mind was 
ruffled by the impetuous behaviour of Eusebius, and he 
dreaded the possibility of infringing our Lord's command 
to abstain from bringing a gift to the altar when ' thy 
brother hath aught against thee.' After the conclusion 
of the service, he took his seat with the other bishops in 
the baptistry, and summoned Eusebius into the presence 
of the conclave. Once more the accuser was warned not 
to advance charges which he might not be able to sub- 
stantiate, and was reminded that when once the indict- 
ment had been formally lodged, he could not, being a 
bishop, retract the prosecution. Eusebius, however, in- 



Cji. XVL] bishop of ephesus. 279 

timated his willingness to accept all the responsibility of 
persevering with, the accusation. The list of charges was 
then formally read. The bishops concurred in pronouncing 
each of the alleged offences to be a gross violation of 
ecclesiastical law, but recommended that Antoninus should 
be tried upon the cardinal crime of simony, since this 
transcended, and in a manner comprehended, all the rest. 
' Love of money was the root of all evil ; ' and he who 
would basely sell for money the highest spiritual office, 
would not scruple to dispose of sacred vessels, marbles, or 
land belonging to the Church. The Archbishop then 
turned to the accused. ' What say you, Brother Antoninus, 
to these things?' The Bishop of Ephesus replied by a 
flat denial of the charges. A similar question being ad- 
dressed to some of the bishops there present, described as 
purchasers of their sees, was answered by a similar denial. 
An examination of such witnesses as could be procured 
lasted till 2 o'clock in the day, when, owing to the lack of 
further evidence, the proceedings were adjourned. Con- 
sidering the gravity of the affair, and the inconvenience 
of collecting the witnesses from Asia, the Archbishop 
announced his intention of paying a visit to Asia Minor 
in person. Antoninus, conscious of guilt, and aware of the 
rigorous scrutiny to which his conduct would be subjected, 
was now thoroughly alarmed. He made interest with a 
nobleman at court, whose estates he managed (contrary to 
ecclesiastical law) in Asia, and besought him to prevent 
the visit of the Archbishop, pledging himself to present 
the necessary witnesses at Constantinople. The Arch- 
bishop, accordingly, found his intended departure opposed 
by the Court. It was represented that the absence of the 
chief pastor from the capital, undesirable at all times, 
might be especially inconvenient at a crisis when tumults 
were apprehended from the movements of Gainas ; and it 
was unnecessary, as the appearance of witnesses from Asia 



280 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHEYSOSTOM. [Oh. XVI. 

in due time was guaranteed. 1 Any delay was an imme- 
diate relief to the accused ; and there was a further hope 
that, by bribery or intimidation, the ultimate production 
of the witnesses might be prevented. But he was disap- 
pointed ; for though the Archbishop consented to defer 
his own visit to Asia, he appointed, with the sanction of 
the synod, three delegates to proceed thither immediately 
and institute an enquiry into the case of Antoninus. 

The delegates were instructed to hold their court at 
Hypoepoe, a town not far from Ephesus, in conjunction 
with the bishops of the province; and the Archbishop 
and his synod further determined, that if either the accuser 
or accused failed to appear there within two months, he 
should be excommunicated. One of the delegates, Hesy- 
chius, Bishop of Parium, on the Hellespont, was a friend 
of Antoninus, and withdrew from the mission under the 
pretence of illness ; the other two, Syncletius, Bishop of 
Trajanopolis in Thrace, and Palladius, Bishop of Helleno- 
polis in Bithynia, proceeded to Smyrna, announced their 
arrival to the accuser and defendant by letter, and sum- 
moned them to appear at Hypoepoe within the appointed 
time. The summons was obeyed, but the appearance of 
the two was only for the purpose of playing off a farce 
before the commissioners. Strange to relate, a reconcilia- 
tion had taken place between Antoninus and his apparently 
implacable accuser. Eusebius had yielded to the tempta- 
tion to commit the very crime which he had so vehemently 
denounced. A bribe of money had quelled his righteous 
indignation; plaintiff and defendant were now accom- 
plices, whose one interest was to conceal their joint 
iniquities. They professed great willingness to produce 
their witnesses, but pleaded the difficulty of collecting 
persons who lived in different and distant places, and were 

1 We are in the summer of a.d. 400, and the capture and death of Gainas 
occurred in Jan. a.d. 401. 



Oh. XVI.] CHRYSOSTOM VISITS ASIA. 281 

engaged in various occupations. The commissioners re- 
quested the accuser to name a period within which he 
could guarantee the appearance of his witnesses. Eusebius 
required forty clays. As this space of time covered the 
hottest part of the summer, it was hoped that the patience 
or health of the commissioners would be too much ex- 
hausted at the expiration of it to prosecute the enquiry. 
Eusebius then departed, ostensibly to search for witnesses ; 
but, in fact, he quietly sneaked away to Constantinople, 
and concealed himself in some obscure corner in that 
great city. The forty days expired, and, Eusebius not 
appearing, the two delegates wrote to the bishops of Asia, 
pronouncing him excommunicated for contumacy. They 
lingered a whole month longer in Asia, and then returned 
to Constantinople. Here they chanced to light upon 
Eusebius, and upbraided him with his faithless conduct. 
He affected to have been ill, and renewed his promises 
to produce witnesses. During these prolonged delays 
Antoninus died ; and Chrysostom now received earnest 
solicitations from the clergy of Ephesus, and from the 
neighbouring bishops, to apply a healing hand to the 
wounds and diseases of the Asiatic Church. ' We beseech 
your Dignity 1 to come down and stamp a divine impress 
on the Church of Ephesus, which has long been distressed, 
partly by the adherents of Arius, partly by those who, in 
the midst of their avarice and arrogance, pretend to be on 
our side ; for very many are they who lie in wait like 
grievous wolves, eager to seize the episcopal throne by 
money.' 2 

The death of Gainas in January, a.d. 401, set Chrysostom 
free to comply with this earnest appeal to his authority 
and aid. It was the depth of the winter season; his 
health was infirm and impaired by the strain of the past 

1 aov tt]v TLfii6T7)Ta ; sometimes we have ocrior^Ta, ' your Holiness.' 
2 Pallacl. Dial. cc. 14 and 15. 



282 LIFE AND TBIES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XVI. 

year's anxiety and toil ; but the zeal of the Archbishop 
disregarded these impediments. He embarked at Con- 
stantinople without delay, leaving Severian, Bishop of 
Gabala, to act as deputy bishop in his absence. Such a 
violent north wind sprang up soon after starting that the 
crew of the vessel, afraid of being driven on Proconnesus, 
lay at anchor for two days under shelter of the promontory 
of Trito. On the third day they took advantage of a 
southerly breeze to land near Apamea in Bithynia, where 
Chrysostom was joined by three bishops, Paul of Heraclea, 
Cyrinus of Chalcedon, and Palladius of Hellenopolis. 
With these companions he proceeded by land to Ephesus. 
There he was received with hearty welcome by the clergy 
and by seventy bishops. 

The first business to which the Archbishop and this 
council of prelates addressed themselves was the election 
of a new bishop to the See of Ephesus. As usual, there 
were many rival candidates, and factions supporting each 
with equal vehemence. Chrysostom fell back on the ex- 
pedient of putting forward a candidate regarded with 
indifference by all parties. The plan succeeded, and 
Heracleides was elected. He was a deacon of three years' 
standing, ordained by Chrysostom, and in immediate at- 
tendance on him ; a native of Cyprus, who had received 
an ascetic training in the desert of Scetis, a man of 
ability and learning. He comes before us again as a 
fellow sufferer with the Archbishop, to whom he had owed 
his elevation. 

Not long after the arrival of Chrysostom, Eusebius, the 
original persecutor of Antoninus and of the simoniacal 
bishops, appeared, and requested to be re-admitted to com- 
munion with his brethren. The request was not imme- 
diately granted ; but it was determined to proceed with 
the trial of the accused bishops, to prove whose guilt 
Eusebius affirmed that he could produce abundant evi- 



Cii. XVL] HOLDS SYNOD AT EPHESUS. 283 

dence. The witnesses were examined, and the crime being- 
considered fully proven in the case of six bishops, the 
offenders were summoned into the presence of the council. 
At first they stoutly denied their guilt, but finally gave 
way before the minute and circumstantial depositions of 
lay, clerical, and even female witnesses as to the place, 
time, and quality of the sales which they had transacted. 
They pleaded partly the prevalence of the custom in 
excuse for their crime, and partly their anxiety to be 
exempted from the burden of discharging curial duties ; 
that is, from serving on the common and municipal 
council of their city. Every estate holder to the amount 
of twenty-five acres of land was bound to serve in the 
curia of his city. Many of the functions incident to that 
office, such as the assessment and collection of imposts, 
were (especially under an ill-administered despotism) in- 
vidious and onerous. Constantine had exempted the 
clergy from curial office, and the consequence was that 
many men got themselves ordained simply to evade the 
disagreeable duty ; and this becoming detrimental both to 
the Church and State, the law of Constantine underwent 
modifications by his successors. The Church passed 
canons forbidding those who were curiales to be ordained, 
the effect of which was to diminish the number of wealthy 
men who entered the ranks of the clergy. 1 The Asiatic 
bishops, therefore, if curiales when ordained, had acted 
against the laws of the Church, and could not legally 
have claimed exemption from curial duties on the ground 
of their orders. They sued for mercy to the council; 
they entreated that, if deprived of their sees, the money 
which they had paid to obtain them might be returned. 
In many cases it had been procured with much difficulty ; 
some had even parted with the furniture of their wives to 

1 See, on this whole subject, Bing- 187 and 318, and the authorities there 
ham, viii. 13, 6; and Robertson, i. pp. cited. 



284 LIFE AND TBIES OF ST. CHEYSOSTOM. [Ch. XVI. 

raise the requisite amount. The Archbishop undertook to 
intercede with the Emperor for their exemption from 
curial duty ; the ecclesiastical question he submitted to 
the council. The decision of the prelates, under the in- 
fluence of their president, was temperate and wise. The 
six bishops were to be deprived of their sees, but allowed 
to receive the Eucharist inside the altar rails with the 
clergy, and the heirs of Antoninus were required to restore 
their purchase money to them. The deposed prelates 
were superseded by the appointment of six men, unmarried, 
eminent for learning and purity of life. 1 

On his return through Bithynia the Archbishop was 
detained by a not less difficult and delicate piece of 
business. Gerontius, Archbishop of Mcomedia, the me- 
tropolitan of Bithynia, was a singular specimen of an 
ecclesiastical adventurer. He had been a deacon at 
Milan, but was expelled by Ambrose for misconduct. 
He made his way to Constantinople, where, by general 
cleverness, and by some real or pretended skill in medi- 
cine, he became a favourite with people of rank, and 
through, the interest of some influential friends obtained 
the See of Mcoinedia. He was consecrated by Helladius, 
Bishop of Heraclea, for whose son Gerontius had managed 
to procure a high appointment in the army. The new 
Bishop of Mcomedia gained the attachment of his people, 
again it is said, through his skill in curing diseases of 
the body rather than of the soul. Ambrose incessantly 
demanded of Nectarius, then Patriarch of Constantinople, 
that he should be deposed ; but Nectarius did not venture 
to incur the displeasure of the Mcomedians. The bolder 
spirit and more scrupulous conscience of Chrysostom did 
not hesitate to strike the blow which' his more worldly 

1 Pallad, Dial. cc. 14, 15. Sozomen synod may have inquired into other 

(viii. 6) says that Chrysostom deposed simoniacal cases beyond the original 

thirteen bishops of Asia, Lycia, and six. 
Phrygia. This is possible, as the 



On. XVI.] DEPOSITION OF GEEONTIUS. 285 

and courtly predecessor had shrunk from striking. Ge- 
rontius was deposed, whether by the sole authority of 
the Archbishop, or by the decree of a council acting 
under his influence, is not stated. Pansophius, formerly 
tutor to the Empress, a man of piety, wisdom, and gentle- 
ness, was promoted to the see. But the Nicomedians 
bewailed the loss of their favourite ; they went about the 
streets in procession, singing litanies, as if in the time 
of some great national calamity. 1 Before quitting Asia, 
Chrysostom is said to have taken active measures for the 
suppression of the worship of Midas at Ephesus, and of 
Cybele in Phrygia. 2 

All these proceedings are worth recording, not only as 
of some ecclesiastical interest in themselves, but also 
because they were all remembered and made capital of 
by his enemies. It has been much debated whether Chry- 
sostom, by his acts in Asia, overstrained his legal powers, 
or rather, whether he exceeded the legal boundaries of 
his jurisdiction as Patriarch of Constantinople. The fact 
seems to be that the importance of his see was in that 
growing state which enabled the possessor of it, if a man 
of energy and ability, to go great lengths without any 
exception being taken to his authority, unless and until 
a hostile feeling was provoked against him. By the 
Council of Constantinople, a.d. 381, the Patriarch of that 
city was restricted in his jurisdiction to the Diocese of 
Thrace. 3 His authority over the Dioceses of Asia Minor 
and Pontus was not established till the Council of Chal- 
cedon, a.d. 451, when there was a long discussion on the 

1 Sozom. viii. 6. whole Empire was divided into thir- 

2 Tillemqnt, xi. p. 170. teen dioceses, and about one hundred 

3 Labbe, ii. p. 947. It must always and twenty provinces. The Ecclesi- 
be borne in mind that Diocese was astical divisions followed more or less 
the name of the largest civil division of the plan of the civil. An archbishop 
the Roman Empire. Each diocese con- was bishop of the metropolis of a 
tained several provinces, e.g. Thrace, Province, a Patriarch of one or more 
six ; Asia, ten ; Pontus, eleven. The Dioceses. 



286 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XVI. 

subject, and the papal legates especially resisted any 
claim to such an extension ; but it was affirmed that the 
Patriarchs had long enjoyed the privilege of ordaining 
metropolitans to the provinces of those dioceses, and so 
it was finally conveyed to them by that council ; and the 
additional right was granted them of hearing appeals 
from these metropolitans. 1 Theodoret (vide c. 28) simply 
observes that the jurisdiction of Chrysostom extended 
not only over the six provinces of Thrace, but also over 
Asia and Pontus. The Council of Constantinople gave 
the bishop of that see the first rank after the Bishop 
of Rome, because Constantinople was via 'Vco/jltj. The 
Council of Chalcedon declared him for the same reason 
to be invested with equal privileges. 

Chrysostom was welcomed, on his return to Constanti- 
nople, with hearty demonstrations of joy. On the follow- 
ing day he was at his post in the cathedral, and once 
more addressing his beloved flock. In somewhat rap- 
turous language he expresses his thankfulness at learning 
that their fidelity to the Church, and their attachment to 
their spiritual father, had not been impaired by his absence, 
which had lasted more than a hundred days. They were 
disappointed that he had not returned in time to celebrate 
Easter with them. But he consoles them by representing 
that every participation of the Eucharist was a kind of 
Easter. ' As often as ye eat this bread, ye do show forth 
the Lord's death till He come.' ' They were not tied to 
time and place like the Jew. Wherever and whenever the 
Christian celebrated that holy feast with joy and love, there 
was the true Paschal Festival.' 2 They regretted also that 
so many had been baptized by other hands than his. ' What 
then ? that does not impair the gift of God ; I was not 

1 Can. xxviii. ; and Can. ix. Chalced. in Labbe, iv. pp. 769 and 788. 

2 Comp. Keble, Christian Year for Easter day. 

' Sundays by thee more glorious break, 
An Easter Day in every week.' 



(ii. XVI.] CHRYSOSTOM RETURNS. 287 

present when they were baptized, but Christ was present.' 
•'In a document signed by the Emperor, the only question 
of importance was the autograph ; the quality of the ink 
and paper mattered not. Even so in baptism the tongue 
and the hand of the priest are but as the paper and pen : 
the hand which writes is the Holy Spirit Himself.' 1 

The thankfulness and joy of Chrysostom at the affec- 
tionate reception with which he was greeted by the 
people were probably felt and expressed the more warmly, 
owing to some unpleasant accounts which had been for- 
warded to him by his deacon Serapion, that Severian, 
Bishop of Gabala, had been endeavouring to undermine 
his influence in his absence. It will be remembered 
that to Severian Chrysostom had entrusted his episcopal 
duties during his visitation journey in Asia. The cir- 
cumstance of a bishop of Syria residing for so long a 
time in Constantinople is worth considering, and affords 
a curious insight into the character of the times. An- 
tiochus, Bishop of Ptolemais in Phoenicia, had a reputation 
as a learned and eloquent man ; he paid a visit to Con- 
stantinople, and excited much admiration by his dis- 
courses. Severian, hearing of his success, was animated 
by a spirit of emulation, if not envy, which could not be 
satisfied till he had exhibited his powers on the same 
theatre. He carefully composed a large stock of sermons, 
and set out to try his fortune in the capital. The un- 
suspicious and generous Archbishop received him cor- 
dially, and frequently invited him to preach. Severian 
possessed some powers of speaking, though he had a 
harsh provincial accent, and he exerted all his eloquence 
in the church, and all his arts of flattery out of it, to win 
the confidence and admiration, not only of the Archbishop, 
but also of the chief personages at court, and even the Em- 
peror and Empress. It was with their full approval that 

1 Vol. iii. p. 421. 



288 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XVI. 

lie remained as deputy of the Archbishop during his sojourn 
in Asia. But he found himself narrowly and suspiciously 
watched by the Archdeacon Serapion, who opposed some 
of his proceedings as arbitrary, and made no concealment 
of his dislike. One day after the return of Chrysostom, 
Severian passed through an apartment of the episcopal 
palace where Serapion was sitting. Serapion rose not to 
make the customary salutation of respect. Severian, 
irritated by his discourtesy, exclaimed in a loud voice : 
6 If Serapion dies a Christian, then Jesus Christ was not 
incarnate.' The last clause only of the sentence was 
repeated by Serapion to Chrysostom. It was corroborated 
by witnesses ; the indignation of the Archbishop was ex- 
cited. Severian was peremptorily commanded to quit the 
city. The Empress resented the expulsion of a favourite 
preacher, and commanded the Archbishop to recall him. 
Chrysostom yielded so far, but was inflexible in his refusal 
to admit the offender to communion, till Eudoxia came in 
person to the Church of the Apostles, placed her infant 
son Theodosius on his knees, and conjured him by solemn 
oaths to listen to her request. The Archbishop then, 
but with some reluctance, consented. 1 He was, however, 
thoroughly honest in doing that to which he had once 
made up his mind. Fearing that his congregation, in their 
zealous attachment to him, might disapprove of the re- 
conciliation, he delivered a short address on the subject. 
c He was their spiritual father, and he trusted therefore 
they would extend to him the respect and obedience of 
affectionate and dutiful children. He came to them with 
the most appropriate message that could be delivered by 
the mouth of a bishop — a message of peace and love. 
There was also a further duty incumbent on all — re- 
spectful submission to the civil powers. If the Apostle 
Paul said, "Be subject to principalities and powers" 

1 Socrat. yi. 11. Sozom. viii. 10. 



Cm XVI.] • HE BECOMES MOKE UNPOPULAR. 289 

(Tit. iii. 1), how especially was this precept incumbent 
on the subjects of a religious sovereign who laboured for 
the good of the Church. He besought them to receive 
Severian with a full heart and with open arms.' The 
request was received by the congregation with expressions 
of approbation. He thanked them for their obedience, 
and concluded with a prayer that God would grant a 
fixed and lasting peace to his Church. 

Severian addressed them the next day in a rhetorical 
and artificial discourse on the beauty and blessings of 
peace — a subject painfully incongruous with the subse- 
quent conduct of the speaker ; for this misunderstanding 
with the Bishop of Gabala was the first muttering of the 
storm which was soon to burst over the head of the 
doomed Archbishop. 1 

The inevitable fate of one who attempts to reform a 
deeply corrupt society, and a secularised clergy, on an 
ascetic model befell Chrysostom. He lashed with al- 
most equal severity the most unpardonable crimes and 
the more venial foibles and follies. His denunciations of 
heartless rapacity, sensuality, luxury, addiction to de- 
basing and immoral amusements, might have been borne, 
but he presumed — an intolerable offence ! — to censure the 
fashionable ladies for setting off their complexions with 
paint, and surmounting their heads with piles of false 
hair. The clergy, too, might have tolerated his con- 
demnation of the grosser offences, such as simony or 
concubinage, but they resented his restraint of their 
indulgence in the pleasures of society, and of their pro- 
pensity to frequent the entertainments of the noble and 
wealthy. He was, as Palladius expresses it, ' like a lamp 
burning before sore eyes/ for what he bade others be, 
that he was pre-eminently himself. 2 None could say that 
he was one man in the pulpit and another out of it. To 

1 Vol. iii. p. 421 et seq. 2 Pall. Dial. c. 18, pp. 62 and 67. 

U 



290 LIFE AND TBIES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XVI. 

set an example to his worldly clergy, and to avoid con- 
tamination, he gave up his episcopal income, save what 
sufficed to supply his simple daily wants. He resolutely 
abstained from mingling in general society, and ate his 
frugal meals in the seclusion of his own apartment. 
Thus, with the exception of a few deeply attached friends, 
who measured practical Christianity by the same standard 
as himself, he became deeply unpopular among the upper 
ranks of society. With the poor it was otherwise ; they 
regarded him as a kind of champion, because he de- 
nounced the oppressions and extortions of the rich, and 
the tyranny of masters over slaves ; because he was ever 
inculcating the duty of almsgiving. In the eyes of his 
friends he was the saint, pure in life, severe in discipline, 
sublime in doctrine ; in the eyes of his enemies he was 
the sacerdotal tyrant, odious to the clergy as an inexor- 
able maintainer of a rule of life intolerably rigid, odious 
to clergy and laity as an inhospitable, if not haughty 
recluse; a vigilant and merciless censor who rode rough- 
shod over established customs. Individuals at last, among 
clergy and laity, who conceived that they themselves, or 
at any rate the section of society to which they belonged, 
were the butts at which more especially the Archbishop 
aimed his shafts, began to discuss with one another their 
grievances, till their conferences gradually assumed the 
shape of positive organised hostility against the disturber 
of their peace. But before entering on the troublous 
histor}^ of his enemies' machinations, it may be well to 
take a glance at the most conspicuous of Chrysostom's 
friends. 

The list of those who are known to us by more than 
their mere names is soon exhausted. Among the 'clergy 
may be reckoned Heracleides, made Bishop of Ephesus 
in the place of Antoninus ; Proclus, afterwards (in a.d. 
434) Patriarch of Constantinople, at present the receiver 



On. XVL] HIS FRIENDS. 291 

of those who demanded audiences with the Patriarch; 
Cassianus, founder of the Monastery of St. Victor at Mar- 
seilles, and his friend and companion Germanus ; — Hella- 
dius, the priest of the palace, probably equivalent to 
private chaplain ; Serapion, the deacon ] or archdeacon, 2 
afterwards made Bishop of Heraclea in Thrace, from 
which see he was expelled in the persecution which befell 
Chrysostom's followers. With most of these men he 
maintained a constant and affectionate intercourse or 
correspondence during his exile to the close of his life. 
With such intimate companions and friends the austerity 
and reserve of manner which he assumed towards those 
outside this circle vanished. Ail the natural amiability 
and playful humour of his disposition shone out when he 
was in their company ; he called some of them by nick- 
names of his own invention, especially those who prac- 
tised such ascetic exercises as he specially approved of. 3 

Three ladies are distinguished as among his most 
faithful friends. Salvina was the daughter of the African 
rebel Gildo, and had been married by Theodosius to 
Nebridius, nephew of his Empress, in the hope — a vain one 
as it proved — that this tie would attach Gildo to the 
Empire. Her husband died young ; she vowed perpetual 
widowhood, and became the patroness and protectress at 
the Court of Arcadius of Oriental churches and eccle- 
siastics. 

Pentadia was wife of the consul Timasius ; and when 
her husband was banished by Eutropius to the Oasis of 
Egypt, she had been persecuted by the merciless tyrant, 
and fled for refuge to the Church, where she was protected 
in sanctuary by the Archbishop in spite of the opposition 
of her persecutor. 

But by far the most eminent of Chrysostom's female 
friends was the deaconess Olympias. She sprang from a 

1 Socr. vi. 4. 2 Sozom. yiii. c. 9. 3 Pall. Dial. e. 19. 

tj 2 



292 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Qtitf 

noble but pagan family. Her grandfather, Ablavius, was 
a prsetorian prefect, highly esteemed and trusted by Con- 
stantine the Great, and her father, Seleucus, had attained 
the rank of count. She was early left an orphan, endowed 
with great personal beauty, and heiress to a vast fortune. 
Her uncle and guardian, Procopius, was a man of pro- 
bity and piety, a friend and correspondent of Gregory 
Nazianzen. Her instructress also, Theodosia, sister of 
St. Amphilocius, was a woman of piety; one whom 
Gregory recommended Olympias to imitate as a very 
model of excellence in speech and conduct. Under this 
happy training, the girl grew up to emulate and surpass 
her preceptress in goodness. Gregory delighted to call 
her f his own Olympias,' and to be called ' father ' by her. 1 
There could be no difficulty in finding a suitor for a lady 
possessed of every attraction. The anxiety of Procopius was 
to secure a worthy one. Nebridius was selected, a young 
man, but high in official rank; Counter Intendant of the 
Domain in a.d. 382, Prefect of Constantinople in a.d. 386. 
Tliey were wedded in a.d. 384. Many bishops assisted 
at the ceremony, but Gregory was prevented from attend- 
ing by the state of his health. He wrote a letter to Pro- 
copius, saying that in spirit, nevertheless, he would join 
their hands to one another and to God. Part of the letter 
is written in a vein of sprightly humour. c It would have 
been very unbecoming for a gouty old fellow like himself 
to be seen hobbling about among the dancers and merry- 
makers at the nuptials.' 2 He also addressed a poem to 
Olympias, in which he gives her advice how she ought to 
conduct herself as a married woman. She did not long 
need his counsel. Nebridius died about two years after 
their marriage. Olympias regarded this early dissolution 
of the marriage bond as an intimation of the Divine will 
that she should henceforth live free from the worldly 

1 Greg. Naz. Epp. Mi. lviii. 2 Ep. lvii. 



Ch. xvij history of olympias. 293 

entanglements and cares incident to married life. The 
Emperor Theodosius desired to unite her to a Spaniard 
named Elpidius, a kinsman of his own ; but she stedfastly 
refused. The Emperor acted in that despotic manner 
which occasionally marred his usually generous character. 
He ordered the property of Olympias to be confiscated till 
she should be thirty years of age ; she was even denied 
freedom of intercourse with her episcopal friends, and of 
access to the Church. But she only thanked the Emperor 
for those deprivations which were intended to make her 
hanker after worldly life. ' You have exercised towards 
your humble handmaiden a virtue becoming a monarch 
and suitable even to a bishop ; you have directed what 
was to me a heavy burden, and the distribution of it an 
anxiety, to be kept in safe custody. You could not have 
conferred a greater blessing upon me, unless you had 
ordered it to be bestowed upon the churches and the 
poor.' The Emperor was softened ; at any rate, he per- 
ceived the uselessness, if not the injustice, of his treatment. 
He cancelled the order for the confiscation of her pro- 
perty, and left her in the undisturbed enjoyment of single 
life and of her possessions. Henceforward her life and 
wealth were devoted to the interests of the Church. She 
was the friend, entertainer, adviser of many of the most 
eminent ecclesiastics of the day; the liberal patroness 
of their works in Greece, Asia, Syria, not only by dona- 
tions of money but even of landed property. We may not 
admire, what was regarded in those days as among the 
most admirable traits of saintliness, a total disregard to 
personal neatness and cleanliness, but we 'can admire her 
frugal living, and entire devotion of her time to minister- 
ing to the wants of the sick, the needy, and the ignorant. 
Her too indiscriminate liberality was restrained by Chry- 
sostom, who represented to her that, as her wealth was a 
trust committed to her by God, she ought to be prudent 



294 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XVI 

in the distribution of it. This salutary advice procured 
for him the ill-will of many avaricious bishops and clergy, 
who had profited, or hoped to profit, by her wealth. 1 She, 
on her side, repaid the Archbishop for his spiritual care 
*by many little feminine attentions to his bodily wants, 
especially by seeing that he was supplied with wholesome 
food, and did not overstrain his feeble constitution by a 
too rigid abstinence. 2 

The leaders of the faction hostile to Chrysostom among 
the clergy were the two bishops already mentioned — Seve- 
rian of Gabala, and Antiochus of Ptolemais. To these 
was added a third in the person of Acacius, Bishop of 
Bercea. He had in a.d. 401 or a.d. 402 paid a visit to 
Constantinople, and, in a fit of rage at what he considered 
the mean lodging and inhospitable entertainment of the 
Archbishop, had coarsely exclaimed, in the hearing of 
some of the clergy, ' I'll season a dainty dish for him.' 3 
The ladies who acquired a melancholy pre-eminence among 
the enemies of the Archbishop were the intimate friends 
of the Empress, already mentioned — Marsa, widow of 
Promotus, the consul whom Eufinus murdered ; Castricia, 
wife of the consul Saturninus ; and Eugraphia, a wealthy 
widow — all rich women ' who used for evil the wealth 
which their husbands had through evil obtained.' Proud, 
intriguing, licentious, they were all exasperated against 
the Archbishop for the censure which he had not spared 
to pronounce upon their moral conduct, as well as their 
vain and extravagant display in dress. The house of 
Eugraphia became the rendezvous of all clergy and 
monks, as well as laity, who were disaffected to him. 
Among the clergy was Atticus, who was obtruded on the 

1 Theophilus is said to have fallen 2 Pall. Dial. cc. 16 and 17. Sozom. 

down before her and kissed her knees, viii. 9. 

an obeisance prompted by avaricious 3 Pall. Dial. c. 6. Tillemont, xiv. 

hopes on his part, and repelled by p. 219 seq. : iyk avTw aprvu x^pau. 
genuine humility on hers. 



Cn. XVL] CHRYSOSTOM'S enemies. 295 

see as Archbishop after the banishment of Chrysostom. 
This worthy cabal collected, and disseminated with praise- 
worthy industry, whatever tales could damage the cha- 
racter and influence of the Archbishop. His real failings 
were exaggerated and others were invented, and his 
language misrepresented. ' He was irascible, inhospi- 
table, uncourteous, parsimonious ; he had unmercifully 
assailed Eutropius with harsh language when he fled for 
refuge to the Church ; he had behaved disrespectfully to 
Ga'inas when he was ' m agister militum ; ' but, worse than 
all, he had audaciously attacked the Augusta herself, and 
had insulted her sacred majesty by indicating her under 
the name of Jezebel. This is scarcely credible in itself, 
and is distinctly contradicted by the most trustworthy 
authorities ; but it is stated that he had reproved the 
Empress for appropriating with harshness if not violence 
a piece of land ; and of course the blows which he directed 
against inordinate luxury, unseemly parade of dress and 
the like, fell heavily upon the most prominent leader in 
these follies. She was probably mortified also to find that 
her display of religious zeal, her pious attendance on 
the services of the Church, her pilgrimages, her really 
liberal donations to good works, did not protect her from 
censure in other things. Chrysostom was not one of 
those who would connive at evil for the benefit, as some 
might have represented it, of the Church. He would not 
sacrifice what he believed to be the interests of morality, 
for the supposed advantage either of himself or of the 
Church over which he ruled. Wrong was wrong, and 
must be rebuked though the actor was the Empress her- 
self, though that Empress was inclined to be the bene- 
factress and patroness of the Church, though she might 
become, as she did become, his implacable enemy, and 
chief director of those who were inimical to him. 

The clergy only needed an equally potent leader on 



296 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XVI. 

tlieir side, and then the organisation of the hostile forces 
would be complete. Such a chief was to be found in the 
Patriarch of Alexandria, Theophilus, who had already dis- 
played a malignant spirit at the ordination of the Arch- 
bishop, though intimidated by Eutropius into submission. 
He was only waiting his opportunity for revenge, which a 
concurrence of circumstances now put into his hands. 

After making the most of such charges as gossip, aided 
by malice, could manufacture at Constantinople, the enemy 
employed one of the party, a despicable Syrian monk 
named Isaac, to make a scrutinising enquiry at Antioch 
into the previous life of Chrysostom. A yCuth passed in 
such a licentious and voluptuous city could not fail, they 
thought, to betray some stains if submitted to a rigorous 
inspection. But their malevolent expectations were dis- 
appointed, for their miserable spy could bring back 
nothing but unmixed praise of an immaculate youth and 
a pious manhood. 1 

At this juncture the intriguers applied to Theophilus, 
and they could not have secured a more willing and able 
director of their plans. The character of this prelate, 
and his prominent position in the final events of Chrysos- 
tom's career, demand some notice. Of his family and 
early life little is known. He had a sister who sympa- 
thised with him in his ambitious schemes ; and Cyril, who 
succeeded him in the patriarchate, and too largely in- 
herited his spirit, was his nephew. He spent a portion of 
his younger manhood as a recluse in the ISTitrian desert, 
where he became familiar with the most eminent ancho- 
rites of that period, Elurion, Amnion, Isidore, and Maca- 
rius. He was secretary to Athanasius, and a presbyter of 
Alexandria under Peter, his successor ; and, on the death 
of Timothy in a.d. 385, who succeeded Peter, he was 
elevated to the see. All historians concur in admitting 

1 Pall. Dial. cc. 5, 6, 18, 19. 



Ch. XVI.] TIIEOPHILUS OF ALEXANDRIA. 297 

that he possessed great ability ; that he was capable of 
conceiving great projects, and executing them with 
courage and address. Jerome has described him as 
deepl} r skilled in science, especially mathematics and as- 
trology, and highly praises his eloquence. 1 He had a 
passion for building, and his episcopate was distinguished 
equally by the destruction of Pagan temples and the 
erection of Christian churches. The most splendid of 
these were the church of St. John the Baptist at Alex- 
andria, and another at Canopus. But to gratify this 
expensive taste he was grasping of money, too often to the 
neglect of those indigent people who were dependent on 
the alms of the Church. He combined his efforts with 
Chrysostom's, as has been already related, in healing the 
schism of Antioch in a.d. 399, after which little is known 
of his history, till he becomes Chrysostom's implacable 
and too successful foe. 2 

1 Jerome in Ruf. lib. ii. c. 5. Ep. xxxi. p. 203. 
2 Tillcmont, xi. ' Vie de Theoph.' 



298 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XYII. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH LED TO THE INTERFERENCE OF THEOl'HILUS 

WITH THE AFFAIRS OF CHRTSOSTOM CONTROVERSY ABOUT THE 

WRITINGS OF ORIGEN — PERSECUTION BY THEOPHILUS OF THE MONKS 
CALLED 'THE TALL BRETHREN' — THEIR FLIGHT TO PALESTINE — TO 

CONSTANTINOPLE — THEIR RECEPTION BY CHRYSOSTOM THEOPHILUS 

SUMMONED TO CONSTANTINOPLE. A.D. 395-403. 

In tracing to its starting-point the interference of Theo- 
philus with the affairs of Chrysostom, we have to unravel 
a curious and tangled skein of controversy. The doctrines 
of Origen were as much an occasion of strife a hundred 
and fifty years after his death, as he himself had been 
during his life. With one hand holding on to the philo- 
sophy of the past, and with the other firmly grasping the 
Christianity of the present, he was persecuted by Pagans, 
yet never universally accepted and cordially trusted by 
the Church. 1 So with his system of doctrine ; it became 
a sort of debatable ground for the possession of which 
contending parties strove. The prize was worth the 
struggle; for the genius of Origen could not be ques- 
tioned, but the quantity of his writings being enormous, 2 
and the range of his doctrine wide and many-sided, 
narrow-minded partisans, grasping only a part of it, con- 
demned or extolled him unfairly on a single issue. The 
mystical element in his teaching was carried by some of 
his admirers to extremes of fanciful, allegorical inter- 
pretation of Scripture, such as he himself would never 
have devised or approved. To others of a more prosaic, 
material cast of thought this same mystical vein was re- 

1 Eusel). Hist. vi. 3. 19. composed more books than most men 

2 Jerome declared that Origen had would find time to copy. — Epist. xxix. 



CH.XVII.] WRITINGS OF OKIGEN. 299 

pngnant, and was denounced by them with characteristic 
coarseness. Men of larger minds, who had patience to 
peruse his voluminous works, and ability to criticise 
them, admired his genius, recognised his great services to 
Christianity, heartily embraced much of his teaching, 
questioned some portions, and rejected others. Such 
were Gregory of Nazianzum, Basil, Chrysostom, and 
Jerome, who would never have been so great as writers, 
or commentators, had they not been students of Origen. 
As a general statement, it may be true to say that he 
was less acceptable to the colder, more practical, more 
realistic mind of the Western Church, than to the lively 
imagination and speculative spirit of Oriental churchmen. 
The most controverted points, indeed, in his system were 
of a kind with which the Western mind did not naturally 
occupy itself. The pre-existence of souls ; their entrance 
into human bodies after the fall as the punishment of 
sin ; their emancipation from the flesh in the resurrection ; 
the ultimate salvation of all spirits, including Satan him- 
self, — these are questions singularly congenial to Oriental, 
singularly alien from Western thought. The Origenistic 
controversy fell into abeyance before the engrossing in- 
terest and importance of the Arian contest ; but when that 
wave had spent itself, it revived, and just at this period 
all the greatest names of the day became engaged on one 
side or the other. As usual, the real questions at issue 
were too often forgotten amidst the personal jealousies, 
intrigues, angry recriminations to which the discussion of 
them gave birth. 

In spite of his doubtful orthodoxy, the Egyptian Church 
could not fail to be proud of so distinguished a son as 
Origen, and Theophilus was at first his earnest defender. 
Some of the more illiterate Egyptian monks had recoiled 
from Origen 's highly spiritual conception of the Deity 
into an opposite extreme. Interpreting literally those 



300 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XVII. 

passages of Scripture where God is spoken of as if posses- 
sing human emotions and corporeal parts, they altogether 
humanised his name ; they conceived of Him as a Being 
not ' without body, parts or passions ; ' they obtained, in 
consequence, the designation of ' Anthropomorphites.' 
Against this humanising, material conception Theophilus, 
in a paschal -letter, directed argument and reproof. 1 It 
was received by many of the monks with dismay, sorrow, 
and resistance. Serapion, one of the most aged, burst 
into tears when informed that the mind of the Eastern 
Church concurred, on the whole, with the doctrine of 
Theophilus, and exclaimed, c My God is taken away, and 
I know not what to worship.' 2 

Rufinus, a monk of Aquileia, and for a time the ardent 
friend of Jerome, was, during a visit to Egypt, initiated 
by Theophilus into the doctrines of Origen, conceived a 
warm admiration for them, extolled him as the light of 
the Gospel next to the Apostles, and imparted some of 
his own enthusiasm to John, Bishop of Jerusalem, whom 
he soon afterwards visited. Jerome fully appreciated the 
merits of Origen, though his larger mind and more ex- 
tensive knowledge was not blind to his defects. 

Such were the amicable relations between the leading 
churchmen of the East in a.d. 395, when a visitor from 
the West threw among them the apple of discord. This 
was Aterbius, a pilgrim, who had a reputation as a subtle 
theologian, and appears, immediately on his arrival in 
Jerusalem, to have applied himself to the business of 
detecting heresy. He entered into friendly intercourse 
for a short time with the bishop and Rufinus, and then 
suddenly included Jerome with them both in a public 

1 The 'Paschal letter 'was a circu- Lent and of Easter day, whence the 

lar addressed to clergy and monks name ; but other matters were, as in 

throughout the diocese soon after the the present instance, frequently in- 

Epiphany ; the primary object was to troduced. See Tillemont, xi. 462. 
announce the, date of the 1st day of 2 Socr. vi. 7. Sozoni. viii. 11, 12. 



Ch. xvtl; steife about oeigen. 301 

denunciation as Origenists, and declared the whole diocese 
of Jerusalem to be infected with that heresy. Jerome 
immediately and indignantly repudiated the charge from 
himself; he declared that he was not an Origenist, for 
that he merely read the works of Origen with reservations 
as he might those of a heretic. 1 Rufinus would not 
condescend to make any defence, oral or written, but shut 
himself up in his cloister in sullen silence till Aterbius 
had quitted Jerusalem, fearing, so Jerome affirms, to con- 
demn what he really approved, or to incur the reproach 
of heresy by an open resistance. 2 John of Jerusalem 
was equally indignant at the accusation, but displeased 
with Jerome for publicly exculpating himself indepen- 
dently of his bishop. In fact, the episcopal pride of the 
Bishop of Jerusalem was severely wounded at this time, 
both by the pre-eminence of the metropolitan See of 
Csesarea, 3 and by the reputation of Jerome's monastic 
establishment at Bethlehem, which attracted visitors from 
all parts of Christendom. 

When the minds of all were thus ruffled, a second and 
far more mischievous visitor arrived in the person of 
Epiphanius, the octogenarian Bishop of Salamis and 
Cyprus. He was one of those men who, joining some 
erudition and a high reputation for rigid orthodoxy to 
a narrow mind and impulsive temper, figure prominently 
in theological warfare as the very personifications of 
discord. Shocked at the intelligence of the heretical 
tendency in Palestine, and vexed that it should have 
been detected by a stranger rather than by himself, who 
was a native of Palestine, and the visitor of a monastery 
between Jerusalem and Hebron, he lost not a moment in 

1 Jerome in Euf. iii. ; and Ep. lxi. archate in the reign of Theodosius II., 

2 In Euf. iii. 33. and its jurisdiction fixed to the three 

3 The contest, for precedence -was Palestines by the Council of Chalce- 
eventually decided in favour of Jeru- don, a.d. 451. 

salem. The See was made a Patri- 



302 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XVJh 

setting out for the Holy City. He accepted the hospi- 
tality of the Bishop John, and spent the evening in all 
amity with him, nor was the obnoxious subject of dispute 
mentioned between them. 1 

A strange scene took place on the following day. 

In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in the presence 
of a large congregation, Epiphanius fulminated a dis- 
course against Origen, his doctrines, and all who favoured 
them. Bishop John and his clergy expressed their con- 
tempt by grimaces, sneers, and impa/fcient scratchiugs of 
their heads. At last an archdeacon stepped forward, and 
required Epiphanius, in the name of the bishop, to desist 
from his discourse. The assembly was dissolved, but 
met again in the afternoon, largely augmented, in the 
Church of the Holy Cross. This time Bishop John dis- 
coursed, and denounced the Anthropomorphites, or hu- 
manisers, under which opprobrious name the partisans 
of Origen endeavoured to include all their opponents. 
Pale and trembling, and in a voice quivering with passion, 
the bishop directed his discourse, and turned his body 
towards Epiphanius, who sat motionless in his chair. The 
invective being concluded, the aged Bishop of Salamis 
rose and pronounced these words with solemn delibe- 
ration : c All that John, my brother in the priesthood, my 
son in age, has just said against the heresy of the An- 
thropomorphites I thoroughly approve ; and as we both 
condemn that absurd belief, it is only just that we should 
both denounce the errors of Origen.' 2 A general laugh 
and acclamation on the part of the assembly proclaimed 
their sense of this speech as a successful hit. John made 
one more effort to right himself. He preached again in 
the Church of the Holy Cross, this time on the chief 
verities of the faith, the Trinity, the Incarnation, the 
Atonement, the condition of souls before and after this 

1 Jerome, Ep. xxxviii. 2 Ibid. 



Cn. XYIL] AT JERUSALEM. 303 

life. It was intended to be a grand and convincing' dis- 
play of his orthodoxy, and at the moment Epiphanius 
expressed even approbation. On subsequent reflection, 
however, the aged critic thought he discovered that it 
teemed with error. He abruptly quitted Jerusalem, re- 
paired to Bethlehem, resisted the solicitation of Jerome 
and his friends to be reconciled, and addressed a cir- 
cular letter to all the monasteries of Palestine, requiring 
them to break off communion with the Bishop of Jeru- 
salem. 

Eufinus ranged himself immediately on the side of 
Bishop John ; but Jerome, though with somewhat balanced 
feelings, sided on the whole with Epiphanius. Then the 
pent-up jealousy of John towards the monasteries of 
Bethlehem burst forth ; they were placed under interdict, 
and the Church of the Holy Manger closed against them. 
They were in despair for want of a priest to celebrate 
the Eucharist; but Epiphanius provided one through a 
forcible ordination. The young Paulinian had always 
stedfastly declined holy orders, though considered emi- 
nently qualified by his learning and virtue. He was now 
on a visit to the monastery of Epiphanius, near Eleu- 
theropolis. When Epiphanius was celebrating the Eu- 
charist, the young man was seized by the deacons, dragged 
to the steps of the altar, and there made to kneel. Epi- 
phanius approached, cut off some of his hair, ordained 
him deacon, and obliged him to assist in the celebration 
on the spot. At a fresh sign from the bishop he was a 
second time seized, gagged to prevent his adjuring the 
bishop in the name of Jesus Christ, and when he rose 
from his knees he was pronounced to be priest. 1 The 
joy which filled the monasteries of Bethlehem was only to 
be equalled by the indignation of their opponents at Jeru- 
salem. John actually applied (not without money, it is said) 

1 Jerome, Ep. ex. 



304 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XVII. 

to Rufinus at Constantinople, then Praatorian Prefect, and 
even procured a decree of banishment against Jerome; 1 
but, the murder of Eufinus taking place soon afterwards, 
the Governor of Csesarea evaded the execution of the 
decree. Jerome retaliated by one of those fierce, nervous 
philippics which exhibit more command of language than 
of temper. The Governor of Palestine made a praise- 
worthy but ineffectual effort to bring about a recon- 
ciliation. John had determined to invite an arbitrator, 
from whom he expected a strong partiality for h;s own 
cause. He appealed to Theophilus, from whom Eufinus, 
the monk, had derived his first acquaintance with Origen. 
Jerome indignantly complained of this invocation of a 
foreign jurisdiction. Was not Csesarea the metropolitan 
see of Palestine? why this contempt of ecclesiastical 
law? 2 Theophilus, however, had no scruples in accept- 
ing the appeal. It was just one of those recognitions of 
pre-eminence which the Patriarch of Alexandria, like the 
bishops of Rome, joyfully welcomed. The gratification 
of ambition was pleasantly disguised from others, and 
perhaps from themselves, under the semblance of peace- 
making. Theophilus despatched Isidore as his legate to 
Palestine. His arrival was preceded by two letters, one 
intended for the Bishop of Jerusalem, the other for Yin- 
centius, the presbyter and friend of Jerome at Bethlehem. 
Unfortunately the letter intended for the bishop was 
delivered to Yincentius, and he and Jerome read with 
indignation assurances of sympathy and friendship to- 
wards John, and expressions of contempt for Jerome and 
his party, the language, in short, of an accomplice rather 
than of an arbitrator. It set forth in flowery oriental 
terms the confidence of the legate in the success of his 
mission; ' as smoke disperses in the air, as wax melts 
before the fire, so will these enemies, who always resist 

1 Jerome. Epp. xxxviii. and xxxix. - Ibid, xxxviii. 



On. XVII.] TIIEOPHILUS CHANGES SIDES. 305 

,the faith, and seek to disturb it now, by means of simple 
ignorant men, be dispersed on my arrival. 5 ] The legate 
took up his abode at Jerusalem, and spent his time in 
familiar intercourse with the bishop and Rutin us. To 
Bethlehem he paid occasional visits, where he conducted 
himself with dictatorial haughtiness. Jerome and the 
monks plainly perceived that the so-called arbitrator was 
committed to one side — which was not theirs. 

But on a sudden, in a.d. 398, the Patriarch wheeled 
round ; he discovered that he had been in error. ' The 
writings of Origren were fraught with danger to the un- 
learned, however profitable to philosophic minds.' Such 
was the reason alleged for this sudden revulsion of opi- 
nion. The real reasons appear to have been of a less calm 
and philosophic character. One of the most distinguished 
presbyters in Alexandria at this time was Isidore, an octo- 
genarian. His youth had been spent in pious seclusion, 
among the monks of Scetis and Nitria, and his piety had 
attracted the notice of Athanasius, whom he accompanied 
to Rome in a.d. 341, and by whom he was afterwards or- 
dained priest. He became the Hospitaller of the Church in 
Alexandria, whose duty it was to attend to the reception 
of Christian visitors. In spite of great personal austerity, 
he was, as became his position, gentle and amiable to all 
men, even pagans, when brought into contact with them. 
In a.d. 398, at the age of eighty, he had been employed to 
carry to Eome the recognition by Theophilus of Flavian 
as Bishop of Antioch; and now, in the extremity of age, 
he was destined to become the first victim of a persecution 
from Theophilus, which, beginning with him, culminated 
in the deposition and exile of Chrysostom. 2 

An opulent widow committed to Isidore a large sum of 
money to be expended on clothing for the poor of Alex- 
andria, and adjured him by a solemn oath to conceal the 

1 Jer. Ep. xxxviii. " Pallad. Laus. p. 901. Tillemont, vol. xi. 

X 



306 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XVII. 

trust from Theophilus, lest the Patriarch's well-known 
cupidity should be tempted to appropriate the money to 
aid his grand operations in building. The precaution, 
however, was vain : nothing said or done in his diocese 
could escape the vigilance of informers in the employ of 
Theophilus. Isidore was questioned by the Patriarch con- 
cerning the charitable gift, and required to place the 
money at his disposal; but the hospitaller refused, and 
boldly maintained that it would be better bestowed on the 
bodies of the sick and poor, which were the temples of 
God, than on the erection of buildings. The Patriarch 
was astounded at the temerity of his disobedience, but 
dissembled for the moment the depth of his resentment. 
Two months later, in a convocation of the clergy, he pro- 
duced a paper containing the charge of a horrible and 
unmentionable crime against Isidore, which the Patriarch 
said he had received eighteen years ago, but had been 
unable to prove from the absence of the principal witness. 
The whole charge turned out to be a baseless fabrication ; 
but Isidore was ejected from the priesthood by the con- 
trivance of Theophilus. 1 

The aged hospitaller fled to the peaceful retreat of his 
earlier days, the desert of Mtria. The most distin- 
guished of the monks in this seclusion were four brothers 
— Amnion, Dioscorus, Eusebius, and Euthymius — eminent 
alike for their piety and the height of their stature, 
whence they were known by the name of the ' tall 
brethren.' They were venerated as the fathers of the 
Kitrian monks. Theophilus had in former times professed 
the highest admiration and respect for their virtues. He 
had made the eldest, Dioscorus, Bishop of Hermopolis, 
and had persuaded, if not compelled, Eusebius and Euthy- 

1 Pallad. Dial. c. 6. Other causes viii. 12, brut not incompatible with the 
of the enmity of Theophilus are men- account of Palladius. 
tioned by Socrat, vi. 9. and Sozomen. 



Cn. XVII.] PERSECUTES THE ' TALL BRETHREN.' 307 

mius, much against their will, to be presbyters in Alex- 
andria. 1 Their simple piety was so much shocked by the 
avarice and other failings of the Patriarch, that they 
implored to be released from clerical duties and restored 
to the freedom of the desert. When Theophilus dis- 
covered their real reason for requesting this permission 
he was furious, and tried to intimidate them into sub- 
mission by fierce menaces, but in vain. They withdrew, 
and for a time the Patriarch was at a loss how to execute 
vengeance on men who had few possessions of any kind 
to be deprived of. But now the opportunity arrived. 
Isidore, the excommunicated hospitaller, had been shel- 
tered in their friendly retreat. Theophilus devised a 
malignant plan for disturbing their peace. The ' tall 
brethren ' belonged to that more mystical order of monks 
which embraced Origen's doctrine of a purely spiritual 
Deity, and were determined adversaries of the more 
sensuous and anthropomorphite school. Theophilus now 
scrupled not to declare himself in favour of the Anthropo- 
morphites, whom he had formerly denounced. He en- 
couraged the more coarse and ignorant to make violent 
and tumultuous assaults on the monastic retreat of 
Nitria, and directed the bishops of the neighbourhood to 
eject several of the most distinguished monks, including 
Ammon. They repaired to Alexandria, sought an inter- 
view with Theophilus, requested to hear the cause of their 
ejection, and remonstrated on the treatment of Isidore. 
Theophilus burst into a violent rage, changed colour at 
every moment, glared on them with bloodshot eyes, dealt 
blows to Amnion on his face, and, while the blood trickled 
down, shouted ' Heretic, anathematise Origen.' One of 
the number was put in prison to intimidate the rest ; but 
they all entered it voluntarily together, and refused to 
come out unless their companion also was released. This 

1 Socrat. vi. 7. 
x 2 



303 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XVII. 

was at length, permitted, "but the design of persecution 
was followed up. The Patriarch's paschal letter of a.d. 
401 is chiefly occupied with a condemnation of Origen 
and his disciples. He confesses, indeed, that he had 
himself at one time been cast into that fiery furnace of 
error, but, like the three children, he had come out un- 
scathed ; ' not even his hair or garments had been singed,' 
figurative language to imply that his orthodoxy had not 
been in the minutest degree impaired. He describes 
himself as having now returned from the land of cap- 
tivity to the true Jerusalem ; Origen and his doctrines are 
condemned with much heat ; and a prominent place is 
assigned to him and all his disciples in the infernal 
regions. 1 

But Theophilus was far from being contented to stop 
at this point. He convoked a synod of neighbouring 
bishops. The monks were not informed of it, nor invited 
to appear and make their defence. Three of the most 
eminent were excommunicated as heretics and magicians. 
It was in vain that the monks protested against the 
injustice of condemning Origen or his readers on the 
strength of a few passages only, and those, as they main- 
tained, in many instances garbled or interpolated. A 
synodical letter was published, addressed to the Catholic 
world, reprobating the writings of Origen. It produced 
a profound sensation in Rome, where the Pope Anas- 
tasius anathematised Origen. 2 But the humiliation of 
the Mtrian brethren was not yet complete. Five most 
insignificant monks, scarce worthy, according to Palladius, 
to "discharge menial offices as lay brethren, were ordained 
by Theophilus, one to a bishopric, one to be priest, and 
the three others to be deacons. A small town was created 
a see, there being none vacant to receive the new bishop. 

1 Pasch. Epist. of Theoph. quoted < G. Sozom. viii. 12. 
in Tillemont, xi. p. 470. Pallad.Dial. 2 Sulpic. Sever, lib. i. c. 3« 



Cn. XVIL] THEY FLY TO PALESTINE. 309 

With these tools the Patriarch could rapidly execute his 
designs. His creatures prepared, under his direction, a 
list of complaints and charges against the Mtrian monks, 
which they publicly presented to him in church. Armed 
with this, he had an interview with the governor of 
Egypt, and obtained from him an order for the forcible 
expulsion of insubordinate monks from the settlement at 
Nitria. With a troop of soldiers and a rabble of rascals, 
such as in all large towns are ready for the perpetration 
of any mischief, whom he had previously primed with 
drink, the Patriarch fell by night upon the monastic dwel- 
lings. Dioscorus was the first victim of his rage. He was 
one of the ' tall brethren,' who had been compelled by 
Theophilus to become Bishop of Hermopolis. He was now 
dragged before the Patriarch by some rude Ethiopian 
slaves, and told that he was deprived of his see. Diligent 
search was made for the three other brethren, but they 
were undiscoverably hidden in a well. The fury of the 
Patriarch expended itself principally upon inanimate 
objects; the dwellings of the monks were pillaged and, 
burned, together with their valuable libraries, and, to the 
horror of the pious, some of the Eucharistic elements 1 
also. 

The work of destruction being accomplished, Theophilus 
returned to Alexandria. The terrified monks came out 
of their hiding-places, and, wrapping themselves in their 
sheepskins, their only remaining property, set out from 
their beloved solitudes to seek shelter and a new home 
elsewhere. Three hundred, following the ' tall brethren,' 
took their journey towards Palestine ; the rest dispersed 
in different directions. Not more than eighty arrived 
with the four brethren at Jerusalem, whence they shortly 
afterwards withdrew northwards to Scythopolis, a place 
eminently adapted to their wants by its situation in a 
1 Pallad. Dial. c. 7. 



310 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XVII. 

well- watered valley ricli in palm trees, of which the leaves 
furnished materials for mats, baskets, and the other 
articles usually wrought by monkish labour. 1 But distance 
did not diminish the malice of their persecutor. They 
were pursued by letters from Theophilus addressed to all 
the bishops of Palestine, who were admonished not to 
grant ecclesiastical communion or shelter to the heretical 
fugitives. Jerome mentions two commissioners who 
scoured Palestine, and left no hole or cave unexplored in 
the diligence of their search for the offenders. 2 Thus 
hunted and harassed, the poor monks at length resolved 
to embark for Constantinople, throw themselves on the 
generosity of the Emperor and Archbishop, and submit 
their cause to their decision. They reached the capital,, 
fifty in number ; their foreign aspect, bare arms and 
knees, and primitive garb of white sheepskins, excited 
much curiosity and interest among the people of Con- 
stantinople. They repaired first of all to Chrysostom, in 
the hope that his authority would be sufficient to procure 
them justice, without an application to the civil powers. 
The Archbishop received them with great kindness and 
respect, and shed tears of compassion when he heard the 
tale of their sufferings and wanderings. But he acted 
with caution ; he consulted some Alexandrian clergy who 
were at this time in Constantinople engaged in distributing 
presents to conciliate, or, more properly speaking, to bribe, 
the favour of persons just appointed to civil offices in 
Egypt. They admitted the virtues and hard usage of 
the monks, but recommended him not to incur the dis- 
pleasure of Theophilus by admitting them to communion. 
The monks were lodged in the precincts of the church of 
An astasia ; Olympias and other pious women attended to 
their wants, which were to some extent supplied by the 
produce of their own manual labour. They were ad- 

1 Sozom. viii. 13. 2 Jer. Ep. lxx. 



Cn. XVII.] THENCE TO CONSTANTINOPLE. 311 

mitted to prayer in the church, but excluded from the 
Eucharist until the merits of their cause should have 
been carefully sifted, and their excommunication revoked. 
Chrysostom, unsuspicious of others, in his own innocence, 
was sanguine of his power to obtain their restitution. 
He despatched a letter to Theophilus, in which he besought 
him in courteous and friendly terms to be reconciled with 
the fugitives, and thereby to confer a favour on himself, 
his spiritual son and brother. But no notice was taken of 
the request; and meanwhile the agents of Theophilus were 
busily employed at Constantinople in disseminating in- 
jurious tales about the monks — they were heretics, magi- 
cians, rebels. 

Throughout the rest of Christendom Theophilus pur- 
sued a different method. He toiled with diligence worthy 
of a better cause to obtain a wide condemnation of Origen 
and his works. Could he once secure such a general con- 
demnation, and then prove Chrysostom and the monks to 
be at variance with it, he would possess a powerful engine 
in working the ruin of both. It is difficult to believe that 
even Theophilus would have pursued the monks with such 
insatiable animosity had they not fled to the patriarch of 
that see which was regarded with peculiar jealousy by the 
bishops of Alexandria, and had not the present occupant 
of that see been elected in preference to the candidate put 
forward by himself. Thus he clutched at the opportunity 
of depressing his rival, and punishing his victims, the 
monks, at the same time. 

He found a faction hostile to the Archbishop already 
existing in Constantinople, and quite ready to submit the 
management of their interests to his skilful direction. 
The persecution of the monks was quickly dropped. Their 
supposed offence was only the handle by which to compass 
the destruction of a more formidable foe. Jerome con- 
tributed powerful aid to the designs of Theophilus by 



312 LIFE AND TBIES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XVII. 

favourable notices of hiin in his letters, depreciating the 
conduct of the monks. 1 But a more active auxiliary 
appeared in the Bishop of Salamis, whose advanced age 
seems never to have diminished the alacrity with which 
he entered the lists of controversy. Theophilus, in his 
Origenistic days, had attacked Epiphanius with some 
vehemence as an anthropomorphite ; but he now wrote a 
letter to the bishop expressing regret for his former 
language, and his increasing conviction of the mischievous 
tendency of Origen's doctrines. 2 He implored his holy 
brother to convene a council of the bishops of Cyprus 
without delay, for the purpose of condemning the heretic, 
and of drawing up letters, announcing their decision, to be 
sent round to the principal sees, especially Constantinople, 
where the heretical and contumacious monks were har- 
boured. Epiphanius flattered himself that he had con- 
verted the Patriarch, and was delighted to receive such a 
powerful accession to his side. The council was sum- 
moned, the condemnation carried, and the letters de- 
spatched. 3 Theophilus himself, at the commencement of 
a.d. 402, issued a paschal letter, which contained a subtle 
exposition and refutation of the Origenistic errors. The 
letter was translated, and highly commended, both for 
matter and expression, by Jerome. 4 

To Chrysostom himself Theophilus wrote a sharp com- 
plaint of his protecting heretics, and violating the canon 
of Nice, which prohibited any bishop from exercising 
jurisdiction in matters relating to another see. The 
cause of the Nitrian monks, he asserted, could not be 
decided legally anywhere but in a council of Egyptian 
bishops. It will be borne in mind, however, that Chry- 
sostom had carefully abstained from pronouncing any 

1 Jer. Ep. lxxviii. iu Euf. Epp. lxvii. 3 Socr. (vi. c. 13) says that the writ- 

lxxiii. mgs only of Origen, not the man him- 

'-' Socr. vi. 9. Soz. viii. 14. self, were condemned. 4 Ep. lxxviii. 



Ch. XVII.] PLOTS OF CIIEYSOSTOM'S ENEMIES. 313 

decision, through a council or otherwise, on the affair of 
the monks. They, indeed, became provoked with him 
that he did not espouse their cause more heartily. The 
agents of Theophilus were busily engaged in damaging 
their character ; a little money easily persuaded the 
sailors and others employed in the Alexandrian corn trade 
to point at the monks in the streets as magicians and 
heretics. The monks declared to Chrysostom their reso- 
lution to appeal to the civil powers to obtain a formal 
prosecution of then- accusers as base calumniators. 
Chrysostom remonstrated, and declined, if that step was 
taken, to mediate any more in then* affair. Some of his 
enemies in Constantinople did not fail to make capital 
out of this also, as a cruel desertion of those whom he 
had at first befriended. 1 

Thus hostile forces were on all sides closing round the 
Archbishop, but he continued apparently unconscious of 
the snares which were being woven for him. The Origen- 
istic controversy, into the vortex of which his enemies 
sought to drag him, possessed little interest for him. 
The more mystical, abstract speculations of Origen's theo- 
logy were alien from his practical sphere of work and 
practical habit of mind ; and, in common with the other 
chief representatives of the Antiochene school, Diodorus 
and Theodore, he neither wholly embraced nor wholly 
rejected his system of doctrine. At any rate, he paid no 
attention to the letter from Salamis, which requested him 
to join in the condemnation of Origen and his writings. 
This was precisely what his enemies wanted. 

The Mtrian monks, cast off by the Archbishop when 
they had announced their intention of appealing to secular 
authority, drew up documents filled with charges of the 
most flagrant crimes against their accusers and against 
Theophilus. They demanded that their calumniators in 

1 Pall. Dial. c. 8. 



314 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XV1L 

Constantinople should be immediately tried by the prefect, 
and that Theophilus should be summoned to defend bis 
conduct before a council under the presidency of Chrysos- 
tom. One day, as the Empress was riding in her litter to 
worship in the church of St. John the Baptist at Heb- 
domon, she was accosted by some of those strange skin- 
clad beings of whom, and of whose wanderings and 
wrongs, she had heard much. She caused her litter to 
stop, bowed graciously to the monks, and implored the 
favour of their prayers for the Empire, the Emperor, 
herself, and her children. The monks presented their 
petition ; Eudoxia courteously accepted it, and promised 
them that the council which they desired should be con- 
vened ; that Theophilus should be summoned to attend it, 
and that the accusers now in Constantinople should either 
substantiate their charges, or suffer the penalties of 
calumnious defamation. This enquiry was immediately 
instituted ; the poor culprits confessed that they had been 
paid agents of Theophilus, and that their accusations had 
been dictated by him. They therefore entreated that 
their trial miglit be deferred till his arrival. Meanwhile, 
however, they were put in prison, where one of them died ; 
and as the arrival of Theophilus continued to be delayed, 
they were banished to Proconnesus for libel. An officer 
was despatched to Alexandria to serve Theophilus with a 
peremptory summons to appear at Constantinople, and 
empowered to enforce his obedience if he was reluctant. 1 

Thus the preparations for a judicial investigation of the 
affair of the monks emanated not from Chrysostom, but 
from the throne, although he was represented by his 
enemies as the originator, and by Jerome he is styled a 
parricide for labouring to condemn" Theophilus. 2 Chry- 
sostom seems, in fact, to have dismissed alike the business 
of the monks and the theological question of Origenism 

1 Soz. viii. 13. Pall. Dial. c. 8. 2 Ep. xvi. 



Ch. XVII.] ARRIVAL OF EPIPHANIUS. 315 

from his mind. Intent on edifying the Church, instead 
of agitating it by personal or polemical strife, he quietly 
pursued his daily routine of duties as chief pastor, feeding 
his flock with the wholesome food of the Word and of the 
bread of life. 

Theophilus was unable to evade obedience to the sum- 
mons which commanded him to repair to Constantinople. 
His only hope now was to change his position from that 
of the accused into that of the accuser. The council 
which was called together for the purpose of investigating 
his conduct should, by his contrivance, be transferred into 
a council for arraigning Chrysostom of heresy and mis- 
demeanour. The letters of Epiphanius and Theophilus 
having failed to obtain from Chrysostom that condemna- 
tion which they demanded of the writings of Origen, the 
Bishop of Salamis, at the urgent request of Theophilus, 
set forth at the beginning of a.d. 403 for Constantinople, 
bringing the decree of the Council of Cyprus for the 
signature of the Archbishop. Theophilus slowly pro- 
ceeded overland from Egypt through Syria, Cicilia, and 
Asia Minor, in order to bring up as many bishops as 
possible to the council, who would be prepared to act 
under his direction. Epiphanius, having landed, halted 
at the church of St. John, outside Constantinople, held an 
assembly of clergy, and even, it is said, committed the 
irregularity of ordaining a deacon. 1 Chrysostom, how- 
ever, acted with all due courtesy and discretion. He sent 
out a large body of clergy to welcome the visitor by 
inviting and conducting him to the hospitable lodging 
prepared for him in the archiepiscopal palace. Epipha- 
nius, acting on preconceived judgment of the two chief 
subjects in dispute, declined the offer unless the Arch- 
bishop would consent to expel the monks, and to sign the 
decree against Origen. Chrysostom justly replied that 

1 Socr. vi. c. 12. 



316 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHEYSOSTOM. [Oh. XVII. 

lie could not anticipate the decision of a council which 
was being summoned for the very purpose of considering 
both these questions. Epiphanius, therefore, found a 
lodging elsewhere, and diligently strove to induce such 
bishops as he could collect to sign the decree. 1 His 
reputation for learning, orthodoxy, and piety secured the 
consent of many, but on the part of many more there was 
determined opposition. Eminent among these was Theo- 
timus, a Goth by birth, but educated in Greece, who had 
been made Bishop of Tomis and Metropolitan of Scythia. 
He was a man of genuine sanctity, ascetic habits, and 
courageous spirit. Tomis was a great central market of 
Gothic and Hunnish tribes, and the bishop used boldly to 
enter the motley concourse and try to win converts. He 
would invite savage Huns to partake of some hospitable 
entertainment in his house, and by gifts and little atten- 
tions, and courteous treatment, he sought to soften their 
ferocity, and effect an opening in their hearts for the 
reception of Christian teaching. He came to be regarded 
by them with a kind of superstitious reverence, and was 
commonly called by them e the god of the Christians.' 
Over his half-episcopal, half-barbarian costume flowed the 
long hair which betokened his Gothic origin. He lifted 
up his voice with boldness to denounce the present ill- 
considered condemnation of the works of Origen. It was 
unseemly and unjust, he maintained, to pass a coarse and 
sweeping sentence on the entire works of one whose genius 
had been acknowledged by the whole Church. He pro- 
duced a volume of Origen, and from it read some beautiful, 
powerful passages of irreprochable orthodoxy. Then, 
turning to Epiphanius, he asked him how he could attack 
a man to whom the Church owed a thousand similar, and 
even more beautiful passages. ' How call him a son of 

1 Soc. vi. 12. Soz. viii. 14. 



Cn. XVII. ] HIS ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS. 317 

Satan ? Place what is good in him on one side, and what 
is bad on the other, and then choose.' l 

This courageous protest, however, did not divert Epi- 
phanius and his partisans from their course of action. 
In fact, they proceeded a step further. It was arranged 
that when a large congregation was collected in the Church 
of the Apostles, Epiphanius should enter and harangue 
the assembly, denouncing both the writings of Origen and 
his admirers, especially the ' tall brethren,' and even 
Chiwsostom himself as their protector. Chrysostom, 
however, received intimation of their design, and by his 
direction Serapion confronted Epiphanius at the entrance 
of the church, and told him that ' he had already violated 
ecclesiastical law by ordaining a deacon in the diocese 
and church of another bishop, but to minister and preach 
without permission was a still grosser outrage ; a popular 
tumult would probably ensue, and Epiphanius would be 
held responsible for any violence which might be com- 
mitted.' Epiphanius, though not without angry remon- 
strances, desisted. 2 

Eudoxia seems to have placed special faith in the in- 
tercessions of ecclesiastical visitors of distinction. As she 
had formerly asked the prayers of the e tall brethren,' so 
now, the young prince her son (afterwards Theodosius II.) 
being attacked by an alarming illness, she implored the 
prayers of Epiphanius on his behalf. The bishop replied 
that her child's recovery depended on her repudiation of 
the heretical refugees. The Empress, however, declared 
that she should prefer simply to resign her son's life to 
the will of God who gave it, without complying with the 
requisition of Epiphanius. 3 

It may be that these incidents were beginning to tell 
upon the reason of the aged zealot, and open his eyes to 
the irregularity of his proceedings ; at any rate, shortly 

1 Sozom. viii. 14 and 26. 2 Socr. vi. 14. 3 Soz. viii. 14. 



318 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XVII. 

after this, lie granted an interview to Amnion and his 
brothers. The record of the conversation is instructive. 
c Allow me to ask, holy father,' said Ammon, ' whether 
you have ever read any of our works or those of our dis- 
ciples ? ' Epiphanius was obliged to confess that he had 
not even seen them, and that he had formed his judgment 
simply from general report. c How then,' replied Ammon, 
' can you venture to condemn us when you have no proof 
of our opinions ? We have pursued a widely different 
course. We conversed with your disciples, we read your 
works, among others one entitled the " Anchor of Faith " ; 
and when we met with persons who ridiculed your opinions, 
and asserted that your writings were replete with heresy, 
we have defended you as our father. Is it just on such 
slender ground as common report to condemn those who 
have so zealously befriended you ? ' These bold and 
pungent remarks are represented to have wrought com- 
punction in the heart of the aged bishop. He began to 
perceive that he had been made the agent of a plot, and 
he lost no time in extricating himself from it by departing 
from Constantinople. His farewell words to some of the 
bishops who accompanied him to the ship were, ' I leave 
to you the city, the palace, and this piece of acting.' * If 
the historians speak truly, however, he and Chrysostom 
entertained to the last no very kindly feelings towards 
each other. Each predicted the misfortune about to befall 
the other. When they took leave, Chrysostom said, 'I 
hope you will not return to your diocese ; ' to which 
Epiphanius rejoined, 'I hope that you will not die a 
bishop.' The wishes of both were fulfilled. Epiphanius 
died on the voyage to Cyprus ; the deposition of Chrysos- 
tom will presently be related. 2 

1 Soz. c. 15. 2 Ibid, and Socr. vi. 14. 



119 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THEOPniLUS ARRIVES IN CONSTANTINOPLE — ORGANISES A CABAL AGAINST 
CHRYSOSTOM— THE SYNOD OF THE OAK — CHRYSOSTOM PRONOUNCED 
CONTUMACIOUS FOR NON-APPEARANCE AND EXPELLED FROM THE CITY 
— EARTHQUAKE — RECALL OF CHRYSOSTOM — OVATIONS ON HIS RETURN 
— FLIGHT OF THEOFHILUS. A.D. 403. 

Regardless of the forces which had been set in motion 
against him, Chrysostom pursued his usual course of work 
without any variation. The reins of discipline were held 
tightly as ever ; the Word was preached, in season and 
out of season, with unabated diligence ; the people were 
exhorted, admonished, rebuked with the same irrepressible 
earnestness. His enemies took advantage of a sermon, 
specially directed against the follies and vices of fashion- 
able ladies, to represent it as an attack upon the Empress 
herself. 1 Eudoxia, credulous and impulsive by nature, 
and probably irritated because the Archbishop did not 
pay her subservient homage, complained to the Emperor 
of the insult which had been cast upon her, and was 
induced by the hostile party to expect the arrival of 
Theophilus as an opportunity for redressing her wrongs. 
That prelate was now rapidly approaching, with a large 
number of bishops collected from Egypt, Syria, and Asia 
Minor. Twenty-eight, on whose partisanship he could 
reckon, travelled by sea to Chalcedon. Many bishops had 
become disaffected to Chrysostom in Asia Minor, owing to 
the rigorous investigation recently made by him into the 
state of the Church in that region, and they readily joined 
the camp of Theophilus. Prominent among them was 

1 Socr. vi. 15. Soz. viii. 15. 



320 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XVHI. 

Gerontius of Nicomedia, whom, as will be remembered, 
lie had deposed. The whole force was at length, June 
403, assembled at Chalcedon, and a council of war was 
held to determine the plan of operations. None was 
more virulent in his denunciation of Chrysostom, as 
tyrannical, proud, and heretical, than Cyrinus, Bishop of 
Chalcedon. He was an Egyptian by birth, and Theophilus 
reckoned on him as a valuable ally, but was deprived of 
his services by a curious incident. Maruthas, Bishop of 
Mesopotamia, accidently trod on the foot of Cyrinus ; a 
wound ensued, the wound gangrened, the foot had to be 
amputated, but the mortification spread, and, after two 
years of lingering pain, put an end to his life. 1 

Theophilus made his entrance into Constantinople about 
the middle of June. He had been summoned as a de- 
fendant, but, according to his design already indicated, 
he appeared surrounded by all the pomp and dignity of a 
judge. None of the bishops, indeed, or clergy of Con- 
stantinople came to greet him on landing, but the crews 
of the Alexandrian corn-fleet gave him a hearty welcome, 
and he was accompanied by a large retinue, not only of 
bishops and clergy, but of Alexandrian sailors, laden with 
some of the costliest produce of Egypt and the East, a 
very potent auxiliary in obtaining partisans. As on the 
arrival of Epiphanius, so now, Chrysostom did not fail to 
offer the customary hospitality due to a brother bishop ; 
but Theophilus disdainfully declined it, passed by the 
palace and the metropolitan church, which episcopal 
visitors usually entered on their arrival, and proceeded to 
the suburb of Pera, where a lodging had been prepared 
for him in a house of the Emperor's, called the Palace of 
Placidia. 

During the three weeks that he resided here, he re- 
fused to hold any communication with Chrysostom, or to 

1 Socr. vi. 15. Soz. viii. 16. 



Cu. XVIII.] ARRIVAL OF THEOPHILUS. 321 

enter his church ; nor did lie vouchsafe any reply to the 
frequent entreaties of the Archbishop that he would 
assign his reasons for such conduct. His house became 
the resort of all the disaffected clergy or affronted ladies 
and gentlemen in the city, who were drawn thither, not 
only by a common hatred to Chrysostom, but also by the 
handsome gifts, the elegant and dainty repasts, and the 
winning flattery with which they were treated by Theo- 
philus. 1 These arts were the more necessary because 
Theophilus had a double task to perform ; to arrest the 
course of the accusation instituted against himself, as 
well as to organise a powerful cabal against Chrysostom. 
In the former he was helped by the scruples or peace- 
fulness of Chrysostom himself. The Archbishop was 
directed by the Court to repair to Pera, and preside over 
an enquiry into the crimes of which Theophilus was 
accused. But he declined, on the plea that the eccle- 
siastical affairs of one province could not, according to 
the Canons of Nice, be judged in another ; partly also, as 
he affirmed, out of resj)ect for his brother patriarch. The 
truth probably was, that he foresaw the vindictive and 
turbulent spirit of Theophilus would never submit to the 
decisions of a council under the presidency of his rival 
in that see of which Alexandria was especially jealous. 
Otherwise there is no doubt that a General Council at 
Constantinople would have been competent to judge the 
Patriarch of Alexandria ; whereas a provincial council in 
Egypt could not have judged him, he being supreme 
there by virtue of his position as Patriarch. 2 Chrysos- 
tom himself also might legally have been arraigned 
before a General Council ; but, as will be seen, the synod 
composed by Theophilus was far from being entitled to 
that appellation. 

1 Pall. Dial. c. 2 (Epist. of Chrys. to Innocent), and c. 8. 
2 See Tillem. xi. ch. 71. 



322 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. GHRYSOSTOM. [On. XVHL 

The obstacle of Ms own trial being tlins disposed of, it 
only remained for Theophilus to prosecute bis design 
against bis rival with mingled subtlety and boldness. 
The first step was to secnre a sufficient number of wit- 
nesses, and a list of accusations, which, being presented 
to the Emperor, would furnish a plausible reason for 
summoning a council. The next step would be to pack 
that council with bishops hostile to Chrysostoni. Two 
despicable deacons, who had been expelled from their 
office by the Archbishop for homicide and adultery, were 
well content to draw up such a list of charges on a pro- 
mise from Theophilus that they should be restored to 
their former position. The accusations seem to have 
been of a puerile character ; and if the source of them 
was known, it would seem inconceivable that the Court 
should have entertained them, did we not remember that 
the influence of the Empress, as well as many of the most 
powerful courtiers, was now turned or rapidly turning 
against the Archbishop, and that the bribes of Theophilus 
were permeating the whole city. 

The attachment of the people, however, to Chrysostoni 
was known to be so strong, that it was deemed prudent 
by the enemy to hold the synod at a safe distance from 
the city. A suburb of Chalcedon, called ' the Oak,' where 
Rufinus, the late prefect, had built a palace, church, and 
monastery, was selected as a convenient place for the 
assembly. 1 The bishops, after all the exertions of Theo- 
philus, did not amount to more than thirty- six, of whom 
twenty- nine were Egyptians. 2 Among the latter was 
Cyril, the successor of Theophilus. Chrysostoni was 
summoned to appear before the synod. The scene in 
the archiepiscopal palace immediately preceding the 

1 Vide ante. Ch. XIII. Biblioth. (c. 59) says there were forty - 

2 So Pallad. c. 8 ; on the whole the fire, 
most trustworthy authority. Photius 



CH.XVHL] CHRYSOSTOM AND HIS BISHOPS. 323 

summons has been described by Palladius, witli the vivid 
and minute exactness of an eye-witness. 

6 We were sitting, to the number of forty bishops, in the 
dining -hall of the palace, marvelling at the audacity 
with which one, who had been commanded to appear as 
a culprit at Constantinople, had arrived with a train of 
bishops, had altered the sentiments of nobles and magis- 
trates, and perverted the majority even of the clergy. 
Whilst we were wondering, John, inspired by the Spirit 
of God, addressed to us all the following words : " Pray 
for me, my brethren, and, if ye love Christ, let no one for 
my sake desert his see, for I am now ready to be offered, 
and the time of my departure is at hand. Like Him who 
spoke these words, I perceive that I am about to relin- 
quish life, for I know the intrigues of Satan, that he 
will not endure any longer the burden of my words 
which are delivered against him. May ye obtain mercy, 
and in your prayers remember me." Seized with inex- 
pressible sorrow, some of us began to weep, and others 
to leave the assembly, after kissing, amid tears and sobs, 
the sacred head and eyes, and eloquent mouth, of the 
Archbishop. He, however, exhorted them to return, and, 
as they hovered near, like bees humming round their hive, 
" Sit down my brethren," he said, " and do not weep, un- 
nerving me by your tears, for to me to live is Christ, to 
die is gain. Recall the words which I have so frequently 
spoken to you. Present life is a journey ; both its good 
and painful things pass away. Present time is like a 
fair : we buy, we sell, and the assembly is dissolved. Are 
we better than the Patriarchs, the Prophets, the Apostles, 
that this life should remain to us for ever ? " Here one 
of the company uttering a cry exclaimed : " Nay, but 
what we lament is our own bereavement and the widow- 
hood of the Church, the derangement of sacred laws, 
the ambition of those who fear not the Lord, and 

Y 2 



321 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Cn. XYITI. 

violently seize the highest positions ; the destitution of 
the poor, the deprivation of sound teaching." But John 
replied, striking, as was his custom when cogitating, the 
palm of his left hand with the forefinger of his right : 
" Enough, my brother— no more; only, as I was saying, 
do not abandon your churches, for neither did the office 
of teaching begin with me, nor in me has it ended. Did 
not Moses die, and was not Joshua found to succeed 
him ? Did not Samuel die, but was not David anointed ? 
Jeremy departed this life, but Baruch was left; Elijah 
was taken up, but Elisha prophesied in his place ; Paul 
was beheaded, but did he not leave Timothy, Titus, Apollos, 
and a host of others to work after him ? " To these words 
Eulysius, Bishop of Apamea, in Bithynia, observed : " If 
we retain our sees, it will become necessary for us to hold 
communion with the authors of your deposition, and to 
subscribe to your condemnation." ' To which the holy John 
replied : " Communicate by all means, so as to avoid rend- 
ing the unity of the Church ; but abstain from subscribing, 
for I am not conscious of having done anything to deserve 
deposition." ' 

At this point in the conference it was announced that 
certain emissaries from the c Synod of the Oak ' had 
arrived. Chrysostom gave orders that they should be 
admitted, enquired, when they entered, to what rank in 
the hierarchy they belonged, and, on being informed that 
they were bishops, requested them to be seated, and to 
declare the purpose of their coming. The two bishops, 
young men recently raised to the episcopate in Libya, 
replied, 6 We are merely the bearers of a document which 
we request that you will command to be read.' Chrysos- 
tom gave the order, and a servant of Theophilus read the 
missive. 'The holy Synod assembled at the Oak to John' 

1 The language is not very clear in this passage, but such is, I conceive, the 
drift of it.— C. 8. 



Cn. XVIIL] THEY REFUSE TO ATTEND THE SYNOD. 325 

(thus did his enemies deprive him of all his titles). ' We 
have received a list containing an infinite number of 
charges against you. Present yourself, therefore, before 
us, bringing with you the priests Serapion and Tigrius, for 
their presence is necessary.' The bishops who were with 
Chrysostom were very indignant at the insolent tenor of 
the message. A reply to the following effect was drawn 
up, addressed to Theophilus, and despatched by the hand 
of three bishops and two priests : ' Subvert not nor rend 
the Church for which God became incarnate; but if, in 
contempt of the canons framed by 318 bishops at Nice, 
you choose to judge a cause beyond the boundaries of 
your jurisdiction, cross the straits into our city, which is 
at least strictly governed by law, and do not, after the 
example of Cain, call Abel out into the open field. For 
we have charges of palpable crimes against you, drawn up 
under more than sixty heads; our synod, also, is more 
numerous than yours, and is assembled, by the grace of 
God, after a peaceful manner, not for the disruption of the 
Church. For you are but thirty-six in number, collected 
out of a single province ; l but we are forty, from several 
provinces, and seven are metropolitans. It is only reason- 
able that the less should be judged, according to the cauons, 
by the greater.' 

Chrysostom approved of this answer of the bishops, but 
sent a separate letter on his own behalf. ' Hitherto I 
am wholly ignorant whether anyone has anything to say 
against me ; but if anyone has assailed me, and you wish 
me to appear before you, eject from your assembly my 
declared enemies. I raise no question respecting the place 
where I ought to be tried, although the most proper 
place is the city.' He proceeds to say that he objected 
to his declared and implacable enemies, Theophilus, 

' This must have been a slight exaggeration, hut the raeniLers do seem to 
have been mainly Egyptian. 



326 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHEYSOSTOM. [Ch. XVIU 

Acacius, Severian, and Antiochus, being allowed to sit on 
the council at all. ' He could convict Theophilus of having 
said in Alexandria and Lycia, " I am setting out for the 
capital to depose John ; " which, indeed, is true, for, since 
he set foot in Constantinople, he has refused to meet or 
communicate with me. What, then, will one do, after 
the trial, who has acted as my enemy before it P ' ' When 
these men should have been eliminated from the synod, 
or legally constituted as his accusers, he would appear 
before a council even if composed of members from all 
Christendom ; but till this condition was complied with, 
he would refuse to present himself though summoned ten 
thousand times over.' l 

He demanded, in short, to be tried by an oecumenical 
synod, as the only tribunal which could legally exact 
obedience from him. The Synod of the Oak, composed as 
it was mainly of Egyptians and of declared enemies, 
could not possibly pretend to that character. If the 
Imperial Court had been upright and courageous, not 
open to be cajoled by flattery and bribes, not induced by 
personal animosity against the Archbishop to connive at, 
if not favour, the proceedings of his enemies, such a synod 
could not have been held. That it was held, and suc- 
ceeded in the purpose for which it met, will ever be a 
stain upon the Church and the Empire of the East. 

But although viciously constituted, and, indeed, all the 
more on that very account, the synod made much display 
of complying in formalities with the established order 
of an ecclesiastical court of judicature. The prosecution 
was to be carried on in the name of a plaintiff who was to 
be present, and to submit his charge in writing. The 
defendant was to be cited to appear and defend himself; 
and if he failed to appear after three or four citations, 
he would be pronounced contumacious, and as such be 

J tall. Dial. c. S. 



On. XVIII,] CHARGES LAID AGAINST CHRYSOSTOM. 327 

punishable by the synod with excommunication and depo- 
sition. The further penalties of imprisonment, exile, or 
death could not be inflicted by any but the secular power. 
Theojmilus was president of the synod, and the prose- 
cution was conducted in the name of John, Archdeacon 
of Constantinople, who cherished malice against Chry- 
sostom because he had once been suspended by him 
for ill-treating a slave, though afterwards restored. The 
charges were drawn up under twenty-nine heads. The 
evidence of most worthless witnesses was accepted, or, 
more properly speaking, invited. A strange medley of 
monstrous and incredible offences was included in the list 
of charges prepared by the Archdeacon John — acts of 
personal violence, as well as violations of ecclesiastical 
discipline. ' He had struck people on the face, had calum- 
niated many of his clergy, had called one Epiphanius 
fool and demoniac, had imprisoned others, had accused his 
archdeacons of robbing his pallium for an unlawful pur- 
pose ; he had despotically and illegally deposed bishops 
in Asia, and had ordained others without sufficient enquiry 
into their qualifications, mental or moral ; he had alienated 
the property and sold the ornaments of the Church, he 
held private interviews with women, he dined on Cyclopian 
fare, he ate a small cake after holy communion, he had 
administered both sacraments, after he himself or the 
recipients had eaten.' ' The crowning charge was that of 
treasonable language against the Empress — ' he had called 
her Jezebel.' This was the trump card of the cabal. If 

1 Phot. c. 59. Chrys. Ep. 125 ad had not St. Paul baptised without pre- 

Cyr., where he indignantly repels the viously fasting? Chrysostom shrinks 

charge. 'Had he done so, might his in horror from the supposition of such 

name be blotted out from the roll of a gross violation of ecclesiastical rule 

bishops ;' but at the same time he de- as the act in his case would have 

precates the treatment of such an been, but refuses to place it on the 

offence (had it been committed) with same footing with the commission of 

extreme severity : for had not our Lord a flagrant moral crime, or direct dis- 

Himself instituted that holy feast, and obedience to any command of Christ. 



328 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHEYSOSTOM. [Cu. XVIII. 

the Emperor's Court could be persuaded to believe him 
guilty on this point, exile at least, and probably death, 
would be the inevitable consequence. 

Such were the principal charges in the list presented 
by the Archdeacon John. A second list, presented by 
Isaac the monk, accused him of extending sympathy and 
hospitality to Origenists, of instigating the people to 
sedition, of using unseemly expressions in his sermons, 
such as 4 exsulto, insanio,' or language which gave a 
dangerous encouragement to sinners ; for example, ' as 
often as you sin, come to me and I will heal you.' By 
artfully making slight alterations in expressions actually 
used, and tearing them from their context, it was easy to 
represent them as mischievous or blasphemous. 

It is not surprising that Chrysostom should stedfastly 
have refused to answer in person such a list of partly mon- 
strous, partly puerile accusations before such a synod. He 
pursued the only dignified course possible under the cir- 
cumstances. When a notary from the Emperor came to him 
with a rescript, and showed him the petition inserted in it 
from the synod that the Emperor would compel the at- 
tendance of the Archbishop ; and when, presently, a second 
deputation from the synod, consisting of a renegade priest 
of his own clergy, and Isaac the monk, brought a per- 
emptory summons from the synod, he inflexibly main- 
tained the same attitude. ' I will not attend a synod 
which is composed of my enemies, and to which I am 
summoned by my own clergy. I appeal to a lawfully con- 
stituted General Council.' The citations were rapidly 
repeated three or four times, and always met by the same 
response. The cabal expended their fury on the mes- 
sengers of the Archbishop ; they beat one bishop, tore the 
clothes of another, and placed on the neck of a third the 
chains which they had designed for the person of Chry- 
sostom himself, their intention having been to put him 



Cn. XVIIL] HIS DEPOSITION. 329 

secretly on board ship, and send him off to some remote 
part of the Empire. Some of the clergy were so much 
intimidated by these violent proceedings that they dared 
not return to Constantinople. Demetrius, however, Bishop 
of Pessina, denounced the conduct of the synod, quitted 
it, and returned to the Archbishop. After several more 
ineffectual citations, the synod, at its twelth session, de- 
clared that it would proceed to judgment against Chry- 
sostom as contumacious. Either by a happy coincidence, 
or by the contrivance of Theophilus, a message arrived 
from the Court on the same day, urging the bishops to 
decide the cause as speedily as possible. With much 
alacrity the request was obeyed. They drew up a despatch 
to the Emperor — a formal statement : ' Whereas John, 
being accused of crimes, has declined to appear before us, 
and that in such cases ecclesiastical law pronounces 
deposition, we have hereby deposed him ; but as the indict « 
ment against him contains charges of treason as well as 
ecclesiastical offences, we leave these to be dealt with 
by you, since it belongs not to us to take cognisance of 
them.' The synod waited for the Imperial ratification 
of their verdict, and meanwhile issued a circular to the 
clergy of Constantinople, informing them of the deposition 
of their spiritual father. 1 

Having attained, as he believed, the object of his 
intrigue, Theophilus went through the form of reconci- 
liation with the c tall brethren ' in the presence of the 
synod. The facility with which they were restored to 
favour on a simple request for pardon is in strange con- 
trast to the relentless animosity with which they had been 
hitherto pursued, and indicates that their persecution had 
been maintained simply as the means to securing a more 
important prey. 

Dioscorus and Amnion had both recently died, the 
1 Pull. Dial. S. Socr. vi. 15. Suz. viii. 17. 



330 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHKYSOSTOM. [On. XVIII. 

latter predicting with, his dying lips that the Church was 
about to be distressed by a furious persecution, and torn 
by a deplorable schism. He was buried in that Church 
of the Apostles, in the suburb of the Oak, where, nine 
years before, he had baptised the founder, the Prefect 
Eufinus. The monks of the foundation celebrated his 
obsequies with great pomp ; and Theophilus, his bitter 
persecutor, condescended to weep over his death, and 
publicly declare that he had never known a monk of more 
exalted saintliness. 1 

The triumph of the synod seemed to be completed by 
the receipt of an Imperial rescript, ratifying the sentence 
of deposition, and announcing that the Archbishop would 
be banished. Many members of the synod were probably 
disappointed at the mildness of the penalty ; but the 
people of Constantinople were enraged, and impeded the 
execution of the sentence. It was evening when the im- 
pending degradation of their Archbishop became known. 
During the whole of the night, crowds of people watched 
outside the Archbishop's palace and the cathedral to 
guard against his forcible abduction. Early in the morn- 
ing they thronged the church, loudly protested against 
the injustice of the sentence, and demanded with shouts 
the submission of his cause to a General Council. For 
three days and nights the flock incessantly guarded their 
beloved pastor. Under their protection, he passed to and 
from the palace and the church. On the second day he 
delivered a discourse to them in the cathedral. The first 
portion of it is in all respects worthy of Chrysostom ; the 
conclusion, involved and rugged, seems to have been 
added by another hand, and extracts will not be made 
from it here. 2 

1 Tillemont, v. xi. homily (vol. viii. p. 485), and also an 

2 It contains the celebrated passage, indignant repudiation of the offence 
' Herodias again dances and demands of administering baptism after eating. 
the head of John ;' which recurs as the — Vol. iii. 427. Socr. vi. 16. Soz. viii. 
exordium of another and spurious 17, 3 8. 



Ch. XVin.] HIS SERMON BEFORE DEPARTING. 331 

' Many are the billows, and terrible the storms, which 
threaten us ; but we fear not to be overwhelmed, for we 
stand upon the rock. Let the sea rage, it cannot dissolve 
the rock ; let the billows rise, they cannot sink the vessel 
of Jesus Christ. Tell me, what is it we fear? death ? " To 
me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Or exile ? " The 
earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." Or con- 
fiscation of goods ? " We brought nothing into this world, 
and it is certain we can carry nothing out." ' . . . ' I fear 
not poverty, I desire not wealth ; I dread not death, I do 
not pray for life, save for the sake of your advancement. 
I beseech you be of good courage ; no man will be able 
to separate us, for " that which God hath joined together no 
man can put asunder." If man cannot dissolve marriage, 
how much less the Church of God. Thou, oh my enemy ! 
only renderest me more illustrious, and wastest thine own 
strength, " for it is hard to kick against the pricks." 
Waves do not break the rock, but are themselves dispersed 
into foam against it. Nothing, oh man ! is stronger than 
the Church. ... it is stronger even than Heaven, " for 
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not 
pass away." What words? u Thou art Peter, and on 
this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell 
shall not prevail against it." If thou disbelievest the 
words, yet believe the facts. How many tyrants have at- 
tempted to overcome the Church; how often have wild 
beasts, and the sword and the furnace, and the boiling 
caldron, been employed against it, yet have they not 
prevailed. Where are those who made war upon it ? They 
have been silenced and consigned to oblivion. Where is 
the Church? It shines above the brightness of the sun. 
Let none of the things that have been done disturb you. 
Grant me one favour only, unwavering faith. Was not 
St. Peter on the point of sinking, not because of the un- 
controllable onset of the waves, but because of the weak- 



332 LIFE AND TBIES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Cn. XYIII. 

ness of his faitli ? Did man's votes bring me here, that 
man should put me down ? I say not this in a spirit of 
boastfulness — God forbid — but in the desire to settle your 
agitated minds.' . . . ' Let no one trouble you ; give heed 
to your prayers. This disturbance is the devil's work, 
that he might destroy your zeal in the sacred Litanies ; 
but he does not succeed. We find you even more earnest 
than before. To-morrow I shall go out with you in the 
Litany, for where you are, there I am. Though locally 
separated, we are in spirit united ; we are one body, the 
body is not separated from its head; even death cannot sepa- 
rate us.' . . 'For your sakes I am ready to be slaughtered 
ten thousand times over, since death is to me the warrant 
of immortality. These intrigues are to me but the occa- 
sion of security. I say these things to listening ears ; so 
many days have you watched, and nothing has moved you 
from your purpose. Neither length of time nor threats 
have enervated you ; you have done what I have always 
been desiring, despised the things of this world, bidden 
farewell to earth, released yourselves from the fetters of 
the body : this is my crown, my consolation, my anoint- 
ing ; this the suggestion to me of immortality.' 

Another discourse 1 contains much to the same effect, 
and a declaration of his belief that the real cause of 
his deposition was his sturdy opposition to the corrupt 
manners and morals of the age. ' You know,' he says, 
* why they are going to depose me — because I spread no 
fine carpets, and wear no silken robes ; because I have 
not pampered their gluttony, or made presents in gold 
and silver.' He would comfort and encourage himself 
with the prospect of being reckoned among those who 
had suffered for righteousness' sake. -The cruel and capri- 

1 The authenticity of which has from exile he apparently alludes to 

been questioned. The style is perhaps some quotations from Job made in 

not quite worthy of Chrysostom ; hut tlv's discourse, 
in one of his sermons after his return 



Cu.XYlII.; HIS DEPARTURE. 333 

cioas woman, who one day called him ' a thirteenth apos- 
tle,' and the next l a Judas, 9 would receive a just retribution 
for her conduct. 

The attachment of the people to the Archbishop, and 
their sense of the injustice with which he was treated, 
were so strong that, with his powers of swaying their 
feelings, he might easily have raised a formidable sedi- 
tion, and defied for an indefinite time the sentence of the 
synod and the edict of the Emperor. But his sentiments 
were too loyal, too Christian, too peaceful, for any such 
desperate and violent measures. He might have con- 
tinued to demand the reference of his cause to a General 
Council: but, had this been granted, there was the extreme 
probability that his enemies would refuse, and persuade 
many more to refuse, a recognition of its decision. Then 
would follow one of those melancholy schisms, of which 
the Church already knew too well the misery. He 
determined to bow to the storm. On the third day after 
his deposition by the council, and about noon, when the 
people were not guarding the approaches to the church 
quite so vigilantly, he passed out, unperceived, by one of 
the side entrances, and surrendered himself to some of the 
court officials, who conducted him at nightfall to the 
harbour. In spite of the darkness, he was recognised by 
some of the people, who followed him with loud cries of 
distress. He besought them to abstain from the commis- 
sion of violence, commended them to the care of Jesus 
Christ, cited the example of Job blessing and thanking 
God in the midst of trouble, and declared that he patiently 
waited for the decision of an (Ecumenical Council. The 
vessel in which he embarked conveyed him the same night 
to Hieron, 1 on the Bithynian coast, at the mouth of the 

1 More strictly speaking, ' the Hier- sacrifice to Zens on their return from 
on,' ' the sacred spot ' where the Ar- Colchis, 
gonauts were supposed to have offered 



334 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XYHI. 

Euxine. Perhaps, owing to the dangerous proximity of 
this place to Chalcedon, the head-quarters of his enemies, 
he removed (being apparently uncontrolled in his move- 
ments) to a country house belonging to a friend, near 
Prsenetuni, on the Astacene gulf, just opposite Mcomedia. 

When the departure of the Archbishop became gene- 
rally known on the succeeding day, the indignation of the 
people burst into a blaze. The places of public resort 
were thronged with clamorous crowds denouncing the 
synod, and demanding a General Council. They flocked 
into the churches to pour forth their lamentations, and to 
invoke the Divine intervention on behalf of their injured 
Patriarch. A revulsion of feeling in his favour took place 
among many of the clergy who had hitherto been opposed 
to him. The arrival of Theophilus with a large retinue 
was not calculated to allay the agitation. Force was 
employed to dislodge the people from the churches ; the 
struggle occasioned bloodshed, and even some loss of life, 
chiefly among monks. The worthless clergy who had 
been deposed by Chrysostom, some of them for flagrant 
crimes, were restored by Theophilus. Severian of Gabala 
mounted a pulpit in one of the churches, and extolled the 
act of deposition. c Even were the Patriarch,' he said, 
6 guiltless of other offences, the penalty was due to his 
arrogance, for " God resisteth the proud," even if He 
forgave other sins.' The people were furious at this bare- 
faced attempt to justify injustice. They thronged the 
approaches to the Imperial palace itself, and with loud 
shouts demanded the restoration of the Patriarch. l 

A natural phenomenon, not rare in Constantinople, but 
regarded under the circumstances as a Divine visitation, 
opportunely concurred with this demand. The city, the 
palace, but more especially the bed-chamber of the Em- 
press, were agitated by a severe shock of earthquake. 

1 Soz. viii. 18, 19. Socr. vi. 16, 17. Zosim. v. 23. 



Cn. XVm.] EARTHQUAKE : CIIRYSOSTOM RECALLED. do5 

The friends of Chrysostoin rejoiced at this manifestation 
of the wrath of Heaven ; his enemies were alarmed. The 
terrified Empress eagerly promoted the demand of the 
people for the restoration of the exile. Messengers were 
sent across the Bosphorns to seek him, for the exact place 
of his retreat appears to have been unknown. Bviso, the 
Empress's chamberlain, a man of Christian piety and a 
personal friend of Chrysostom, discovered him at Prse- 
netnm. He was the bearer of a humble, we might say 
abject, letter of self-exculpation from the Empress. ' Let 
not your holiness (rj dyicoavvr]) imagine that I was cog- 
nisant of what has been done. I am guiltless of thy 
blood. Wicked and corrupt men have contrived this plot. 
I remember the baptism of my children by thy hands. 
God whom I serve is witness of my tears.' She informs 
him how she had fallen at the feet of the Emperor, and 
had represented to him that there was no hope for the 
Empire except through the restoration of the Archbishop. 1 
Chrysostom yielded to the solicitation so far as to 
embark and cross the Bosphorus, but he declined at first 
to advance nearer Constantinople than the suburb of 
Mariamna, two leagues from the capital by sea. He de- 
clared that he would not enter the city until he had been 
acquitted by a General Council. But the impetuosity of 
the people would brook no delay. Tidings of his approach 
had preceded him. The waters of the Bosphorus were 
studded with boats crowded with his friends, bearing 
torches and chanting psalms of welcome. The halt at 
Mariamna was suspected to be a contrivance of the enemy, 
who wished to deprive the Patriarch of the honours 
awaiting him. Their denunciations of the Emperor and 
Empress grew loud and menacing. An Imperial secretary 
arrived at Mariamna, urging Chrysostom to enter the city 
without loss of time. The Archbishop consented, and, 

1 Theod. y. 34. Chrys. vol. iii. p. 446. 



[Cu. xviil 

attended by about thirty bishops, amidst the acclamations 
of the populace, was conducted to the Church of the 
Apostles. Again he remonstrated, and expressed scruples 
at entering till the sentence of deposition should have 
been revoked by a legitimate council. But the eagerness 
of the people was irrepressible. He was borne into the 
church, and compelled to take his seat on the episcopal 
throne and pronounce a benediction upon the assembly. 
When he had complied with their request, they would not 
be satisfied till he had addressed them in an extempore 
discourse. The address exists only in a Latin translation. 
Its brevity, and the abrupt style of the opening sentences, 
indicate the extemporaneous character of it. 1 

' What shall I say, or how shall I speak ? " Blessed 
be God." So spoke I when I departed, and I utter the 
same again ; yea, even in my exile I did not cease to say 
these words. Ye remember how I quoted Job, and said, 
" Blessed be the name of the Lord for ever." Such was 
the pledge I left with you when I set forth ; such is the 
thanksgiving I repeat on my return. " Blessed be the 
name of the Lord for ever." Our lot varies, but our 
manner of giving glory is one. I gave thanks when I 
was expelled, I give thanks when 1 return. The con- 
ditions of summer and winter are different, but the end 
is one — the prosperity of the field. Blessed be God who 
permitted the storm, blessed be God who has dispersed it 
and wrought a calm. These things I say, that I may pre- 
pare you to bless God at all times. Have good things 
happened to you ? Bless God, and the good remains ; 
have evil things occurred ? bless God still, and the evil is 

removed.' ' Behold what great results have been 

wrought by the stratagems of my enemies. They have 
augmented your zeal, inflamed your affectionate longing 
for me, and procured me lovers in hundreds. Formerly 

J Socr. vi. 16. Soz. viii. 18. Chrys. Ep. ad Innoc. in Dial. Pall. p. 10. 



Cft.XVIIL] sermon after recall. 337 

I was beloved by my own people only; now even the 
Jews pay me respect. My enemies hoped to sever me 
from my own friends; and, instead, they have brought 

even aliens into onr ranks.' c To-day the Circen- 

sian games take place, bnt no one is present there ; all 
have ponred like a torrent into the church, and your 
voices are as streams which flow to Heaven and declare 
yonr affection towards your father.' He congratulates 
them on putting the enemy to flight. ' Many are the 
sheep, yet nowhere is the wolf seen ; the devouring beasts 
are overwhelmed, the wolves have fled. Who has pur- 
sued them? Not I the shepherd, but ye the sheep. 
noble flock! in the absence of the shepherd ye have 
routed the wolves. beauty and chastity of the wife ! 
how hast thou repulsed the adulterer, because thou lovedst 
thy husband !'...' Where are our enemies P in igno- 
miny ; — where are we ? in triumph.' l 

On the following day the Archbishop delivered another 
address, pitched in the same strain, but amplified and 
more ornate. It opens with a singular comparison be- 
tween the meditated seduction of Abraham's wife by 
Pharaoh, and the plot of Theophilus to corrupt the 
chastity of the Church of Constantinople. The courage 
and faith of the flock in resisting the wolf during the 
absence of their shepherd, their enthusiastic welcome of 
his return, when the sea, as he expresses it, became a 
city (alluding to the crowds who had gone out to meet 
him on the Bosphorus), and the market-place was con- 
verted into one vast church — these are again the topics 
on which he dilates with thankful joy. He applies to 
himself the verse, ' They that sow in tears shall reap in 
joy ; he that now goeth on his way weeping and beareth 

1 It appears from subsequent events discomfited from the field of active 
that Theophilus had not yet actually opposition ; and this would justify 
quitted Constantinople, hut he and the language of Chrysostom, who is 
his partisans had retired for the time speaking under excitement. 

Z 



338 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XVHT. 

forth good seed shall doubtless come again with joy and 
bring his sheaves with him.' The Empress is extolled in 
language which to any but Oriental ears must sound 
painfully fulsome and adulatory. She had sent a message 
to him on the previous evening, saying, ' my prayer is 
fulfilled, my object accomplished. I have obtained a 
crown better than the diadem itself. I have received 
back the priest, I have restored the head to the body, the 
pilot to the ship, the shepherd to the flock, the husband 
to the home.' In return for this complimentary greeting 
(complimentary, it must be confessed, fco herself as much 
as to the Archbishop) she is styled by him, i most devout 
Queen, mother of the churches, nurse of monks, pro- 
tectress of saints, staff of the poor.' The people were so 
much delighted with these laudations of the Empress, 
that the address was constantly interrupted by their 
acclamations. 1 

When the object of the Synod at the Oak had even- 
tually failed through the recall of Chrysostom, many of 
the members lost no time in returning to their several 
sees. Theophilus and a few of his most resolute partisans 
appear to have lurked in the city, waiting a possible 
opportunity for resuming their intrigues. This they at- 
tempted, according to two historians, 2 by instigating ac- 
cusations against Heracleides, who had been consecrated 
Bishop of Ephesus by Chrysostom. The friends of Hera- 
cleides and of the Archbishop protested against the ille- 
gality of such proceedings in the absence of the defendant. 
The question was taken up by the populace. Fierce and 
sanguinary frays were fought in the streets between the 
citizens and the Alexandrian followers of Theophilus. 
At length he and his followers consulted their safety by 
a precipitate flight. This account is not incompatible 

1 Scrmones 1 and 2, post red. ab exsil. vol. iii. 
2 Socr. vi. 17. Soz. viii. 19. 



Ch. xthi.] flight of theopiiilus. 339 

with the assertion of Chrysostom himself in his letter to 
Innocent, that after his recall he incessantly demanded 
the convocation of a General Council to absolve him 
from the verdict of the false synod, and to reinstate him 
in possession of his see ; that the Emperor consented, 
and that, as soon as the Imperial summonses were issued 
in all directions, Theopiiilus, dreading the scrutiny of his 
conduct, embarked in the dead of night, and sailed in 
haste for Alexandria. 1 The citation of the council, and 
the hostility of the people, may well have concurred to 
hasten his departure. The General Council seems never 
to have regularly assembled. Theopiiilus was cited to 
attend it after he had returned to Alexandria, but ex- 
cused himself on the plea that the Alexandrians were so 
deeply attached to him, he feared a sedition would take 
place if he were again to absent himself. No less than 
sixty bishops, however, who had congregated in Con- 
stantinople, though not apparently convened in synodal 
form, solemnly declared their sense of the illegality and 
injustice of the late proceedings at the Synod of the Oak, 
and confirmed Chrysostom in the resumption of his see. 

1 Ep. ad Innoc. in Pall. Dial. p. 10. 



z 2 



140 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHEYSOSTOM. [Ch. XIX. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

AN IMAGE OF ETJDOXIA PLACED IN FEONT OF TEE CATHEDRAL — CHEY- 
SOSTOM DENOUNCES IT — ANGER OF THE EMPEESS — THE ENEMY 
EETUENS TO THE CHAEGE — ANOTHEE COUNCIL FOEMED CHEYSOS- 
TOM CONFINED TO HIS PALACE YIOLENT SCENE IN THE CATHEDEAL 

AND OTHEE PLACES — CHEYSOSTOM AGAIN EXPELLED. A.D. 403, 404. 

The storm had passed over for the moment, and the 
atmosphere seemed serene ; but in reality it was charged 
with all the old elements of disturbance. The Arch- 
bishop owed his restoration to a mere superstitious 
impulse on the part of the Empress, seconded by the 
enthusiastic devotion of the common people to his person 
and his cause. But as the revulsion of feeling which had 
led to his recall died away, and he himself resumed with 
unabated zeal his former work of moral and ecclesiastical 
reformation, the irritation and animosity of the more 
corrupt portion of the clergy and laity revived. In two 
months after his return, an occasion arose which brought 
him into serious collision with the Court. This was the 
signal for the reappearance of his enemies ; they flocked 
from far and near — Egypt, Syria, Asia, as well as his own 
more immediate diocese — and swooped down upon their 
prey with the avidity of vultures. 

The pride and ambition of Eudoxia were not satisfied 
by the enjoyment of a power really greater than her 
husband's, and of respect outwardly equal ; she was deter- 
mined to receive that half- idolatrous kind of homage 
which custom, handed down from pagan times, still paid 
to the Emperor, but to him alone. The smaller forum of 



Ch. xix.] image of eudoxia. 341 

Constantinople was a great square, 1 on one side of which 
stood the grand curia or senate house, which Con stan tine 
had enriched with the sumptuous spoils of many pagan 
temples, and especially with the statues of the Muses 
brought from the grove of Helicon ; opposite to it was 
the entrance of St. Sophia, and the remaining sides of the 
forum were bounded by handsome public and a few 
private buildings all faced with colonnades. In the centre 
was a stone platform paved with, various marbles, from 
which speeches were delivered on great public occasions. 
On this platform the Empress determined to gratify her 
vanity by the erection of a lofty column of porphyry sur- 
mounted by a silvern image of herself. This design was 
accomplished in September a.d. 403, and the erection of 
the statue was celebrated by all the pagan ceremonies 
and festivities, including music and dancing, with which, 
the adoration of the Emperor's image was usually at- 
tended. These rites had been retained by the Christian 
Emperors because they were supposed to be useful in 
maintaining a loyal spirit among the people, but the pagan 
elements were afterwards suppressed by Theodosius II. 2 

The position of Eudoxia's column in front of the ves- 
tibule of St. Sophia, and the disturbance caused to the 
sacred services within by the noisy, tumultuous proceedings 
outside, was regarded by the Patriarch as a disgrace to an 
Empress calling herself Christian, an outrage and insult 
flung in the very face of the Church. He denounced the 
heathenish ceremony with his usual vehemence before 
the people, and complained of it to the prefect of the city. 
The prefect was a Manichsean, and no friend to Chry- 
sostom. Instead of endeavouring to conciliate both parties, 
he reported to the Empress, probably witli some exag- 
geration, the condemnation pronounced by the Patriarch 

1 As distinguished from the Forum of Constautine, which was elliptical in 
shape. 2 Cod. Theod. vi. 102. 



342 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [On. XIX. 

on the indulgence of her pride. The resentment of 
Eudoxia was fierce. She rallied the enemies of Chry- 
sostom around her to devise means for crushing the 
audacious prelate. Acacius, Severian, and others of the 
old troop were soon upon the scene, and conferring with 
their old confederates, the Marsas and Castriccias, the 
rich worldly dames, and the dandy young clergy of Con- 
stantinople. There was no diminution meanwhile in the 
tide of invective poured forth from the golden mouth, 
and the pungency of his sarcasms did not lose force in 
the reports of them which were carried to the royal ears. 1 
Once more the faction applied to the Patriarch of Alex- 
andria, inviting him to come and conduct their operations. 
But he was too wary to involve himself personally in 
another campaign, to terminate perhaps in a second igno- 
minious flight. His influence, however, even at a distance 
was potent. The stratagem adopted this time was to 
counterfeit that General Council which had been con- 
stantly demanded by Chrysostom ; packing it with hostile 
bishops who were ostensibly convened to revise, but in 
reality to confirm, the decision issued by the Synod of the 
Oak. Theophilus, then, having excused attendance at 
Constantinople in person, sent three £ pitiful bishops ' 
(sXsslvovs siTio-KOTrovs), creatures of his own on whom he 
could rely, to execute his designs. 2 They were armed 
with the 1 2th Canon of the Council of Antioch held in 
a.d. 341, which declared that any bishop who, after 

1 The celebrated exordium of a their verdict seems reasonable. The 

homily supposed to be directed a- discourse is the production of a 

gainst Eudoxia, ' Again Herodias thorough misogynist, describing with 

rages, again she demands the head much coarseness and acrimony the 

of John,' if actually spoken with misery and trouble caused by the 

reference to John the Baptist, may wickedness of women. Most will 

easily have been represented by the agree with Savile, that it is f scarcely 

malevolent as aimed at the Empress. worth reading, and quite unworthy 

But the whole homily has been pro- emendation.' — Vol. viii. p. 485. 

nounced spurious by Savile and 2 Pall. Dial. c. 9. 
Montfau^on, and on perusal of it 



Ch. XIX.] FRESH TLOTS OF ENEMIES. 343 

deposition, appealed to the secular power for restoration 
should, for that very act, be regarded by the Church as 
permanently and irrevocably deposed. The Council of 
Antioch had been swayed by Arian influence, and this 
same canon had been aimed against Athanasius, who 
had returned from exile to Alexandria under the Imperial 
sanction. It had been repudiated by the Western bishops, 
and some of the Eastern, at the Council of Sardica, and, 
indeed, by all who maintained communion with Atha- 
nasius. Theophilus, however, proposed to base the pre- 
sent proceedings against Chrysostoin on this foundation ; 
to turn, in fact, against the greatest luminary of Constan- 
tinople the engine which had been originally constructed 
against the greatest ornament of the Alexandrian see. 
The instrument would work well if proper hands could be 
procured to work it. Syria, Cappadocia, Pontus, Phrygia, 
were once more ransacked to supply the council with dis- 
affected prelates. To the old names of Acacius of Beroea, 
Severian of Gabala, Antiochus and Cyrinus may be added 
as leaders of the malignants Leontius, Bishop of Ancyra 
in Galatia, Brison of Phillipopolis in Thrace, Ammon 
of Laodicea in Pisidia ; among those honourably distin- 
guished as friendly to the Patriarch one Theodore of 
Tyana, Elpidius of Laodicea, Tranquillus (see unknown), 
and Alexander of Basilinopolis in Bithynia. Theodore, 
however, perceiving the malevolent intention with which 
the council was convoked, quitted Constantinople soon 
after his arrival. 

The council met about the close of the year a.d. 403. 
It was customary for the Emperor to attend Divine service 
in state on Christmas Day, but he was induced by the 
enemies of Chrysostom to refuse on this occasion, alleging 
that it was impossible to be present where the Patriarch 
officiated till he had been cleared of the serious charges 
brought against him. It was proposed at first to affect to 



344 LIFE AND TBIES OF ST. CHKYSOSTOM. [Ch. XIX. 

meet the demand of Chrjsostom for an equitable trial, 
and to hear all the charges which had been preferred at 
the Synod of the Oak. But the witnesses were so back- 
ward to appear, and the attitude of the defendant be- 
tokened such confidence in his cause, that it was deemed 
more prudent by his enemies to stake the whole issue on 
the canon of the Council of Antioch. If that was once ad- 
mitted, there would be an end of the whole matter. The 
Archbishop, having been deposed already once for all, was 
not competent to appear and plead his cause before a council. 
Chrysostom and his friends opposed the adoption of such 
a course with two powerful arguments. They represented 
that the Council of Antioch had been managed by an 
Arian bishop and influenced by an Arian emperor, and 
the object of it had been to harass the great Athanasius. 
In the next place, the Synod of the Oak had been ille- 
gally constituted ; sixty-five bishops had repudiated its 
decision ; Chrysostom, therefore, was not legally deposed, 
and the canon of Antioch was in consequence not appli- 
cable to his case. This last objection was not permitted 
by his enemies. Leontius boldly declared, what appears 
to have been a palpable lie, that a larger number of 
bishops than sixty-five had voted against Chrysostom in 
the synod. 1 

Thus the question as to the validity of the Council of 
Antioch became the knot of the whole affair. It was 
debated with such vehemence on both sides, that at length 
the adversaries of the Patriarch proposed that a deputa- 
tion from the two contending parties should plead the 
case before the Emperor, and submit the decision to him. 
It may be presumed from their making the proposal that 
they felt secure of a verdict favourable to their side, and, 
at the same time, by this step a semblance of impartiality 
would be imparted to the proceedings. The deputies met in 

1 Soz. viii. 20. Socr. ri. 18. Pall. Dial. c. 9. 



Cm XIX.] PROPOSAL OF ELPIDIUS. 345 

the royal presence. When the heat which marked the be- 
ginning of the discussion had cooled down a little, Elpidius 
of Laodicea with much gentleness of manner made an 
astute proposal. He was an old man, eminent for stain- 
lessness of character, as well as for learning in eccle- 
siastical lore. ' Let us not/ he said, ' weary the clemency 
of your Majesty any longer ; only let our brethren, Acacius 
and Antiochus, subscribe a declaration that they are of 
the same faith with those who promulgated these canons, 
which they maintain to be the production of orthodox 
men, and the controversy will be at an end.' The Em- 
peror perceived the adroitness of the proposal, and ob- 
served with a smile to Antiochus, that the plan struck 
him as the most expedient which could be devised. 
Antiochus and his colleagues turned livid with perplexity 
and rage, but, being fairly caught in the dilemma, were 
forced to dissemble their feelings, and simulated a willing 
consent to sign the proposed declaration. The promise 
was made but never executed. The deputies retired, and 
the adversaries of the Patriarch laboured with redoubled 
energy to procure his final condemnation ; but we have no 
record of any formal session or formally declared sentence. 
Chrysostom continued to preach and discharge his other 
functions with, if possible, increased diligence, and still 
acted as president over the floating synod of more than 
forty bishops who constantly adhered to his cause. His 
enemies, on the other hand, acted as if the sentence of 
condemnation had been passed, and continually requested 
the Emperor to put it into execution. 1 

a.d. 404. As Easter approached, they became more im- 
portunate in their demand. They dreaded the demon- 
strations which might be made in favour of their victim 
by the large congregations which on Holy Saturday and 
Easter Day were wont to assemble in the churches. They 

1 Pall. Dial. c. 9. 



346 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XIX. 

succeeded in prevailing on the Emperor to prohibit the 
Patriarch, as having been deposed and excommunicated 
by two councils, from entering or officiating in the church 
at Easter-tide. Chrysostom had always expressed an 
earnest desire to be tried before a lawful council, and to 
abide by its decision. This request had been systema- 
tically evaded even when ostensibly complied with. His 
whole soul rebelled with honest indignation against these 
insidious and persistent attempts to misrepresent his 
conduct, and he determined now to resist them by taking 
his stand on the lofty ground of his Divine mission. i I 
received this church from God my Saviour, and am 
charged with the care of the salvation of this flock, nor 
am I at liberty bo abandon it. Expel me by force if you 
will, since the city belongs to you, that I may have your 
authority as an excuse for deserting my post.' 1 

The Emperor, though with some shame, sent officials 
who removed the Archbishop from the church to his 
palace, with a strict injunction that he should not attempt 
to leave it. This was a cautious preliminary to final 
expulsion, suggested by superstitious dread of any earth- 
quake or other manifestation of Divine displeasure. Should 
any such occur again, the Archbishop could be released in 
a moment ; if not, they might proceed to further measures. 
Easter Eve arrived, the greatest day in the year for 
the baptism of converts. Three thousand were to be 
6 initiated ' this year. Chrysostom was again commanded 
to abstain from entering the church, but answered ac- 
cording to the tenor of his former reply, that he would 
not resist from officiating unless compelled by actual 
force. The feeble Arcadius was alarmed, and hesitated 
how to act. He scrupled to use force on so sacred a day, 
and dreaded an insurrection of the populace. As usual, 
he tried to shift responsibility from his own shoulders. 
J Pall. Dial. c. 9. 



In. XIX.] TUMULT IN ST. SOPHIA. 347 

He sent for Acacius and Antiochus, and requested their 
advice in the present emergency. They were too far 
committed now to draw back, and promptly replied that 
they would take on their heads the deposition of the 
Archbishop. 

One more effort was made to avert the impending 
calamity. The forty bishops who maintained a close 
friendship with Chrysostom accosted the Emperor and 
Empress as they were visiting, according to their custom 
at this season, some of the martyr chapels outside the 
city. They entreated their majesties with tears to spare 
the Church her chief pastor, especially on account of the 
seasons, and for the sake of those who were about to be 
baptized. But Arcadius and Eudoxia turned a deaf ear 
to their piteous appeal. The bishops retired, grief-stricken, 
to mourn over the wrongs of their Church and Patriarch ; 
but not before one of them, Paul, Bishop of Crateia, had 
lifted up his voice in bold and solemn warning. ' Take 
heed, Eudoxia; fear God; have pity on your children. Do 
not outrage by bloodshed the sacred and solemn festival 
of Jesus Christ.' ' 

The Church of St. Sophia became the scene, on the 
night of that Easter Eve, of shocking tumult. A vast 
congregation from the city and surrounding towns, in- 
cluding many of the catechumens, was keeping vigil to 
greet the dawn of the Resurrection morning. Suddenly 
a body of soldiers burst in with noise and violence, and 
took possession of the choir. The confusion may be 
imagined. Women and children fled shrieking in wild 
disorder. Many of the female catechumens, only half- 
dressed, in preparation for the reception of baptism, were 
hurriedly driven out of the baptistry with the deaconesses 
who attended them. Some were even wounded, and the 

1 Pall. Dial. c. 9. Chrysostom (Ep. ad Irmoc. vol. iii.) speaks of more than 
forty friendly bishops. 



348 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XIX. 

sacred fonts stained with blood. Some of the soldiers, 
unbaptized men, penetrated even to the chamber where 
the Eucharistic elements were kept, and profaned them 
with their gaze and touch. The clergy were forcibly 
ejected in their vestments, and several were wounded. 
The pitiable spectacle of the mingled troop of men, 
women, children, and clergy, violently chased along the 
streets by the brutal soldiery, moved even Jews and 
Gentiles to compassion. The clergy, however, rallied the 
scattered flock in the Baths of Constantine, the largest 
public baths in the city. Here they proceeded with the 
Easter services in due order ; some reading the Scriptures, 
others baptizing. The churches of Constantinople were 
deserted, which the adversary wished to force the people 
to attend in the absence of the Archbishop, in the hope 
that the Court might thus suppose him to be unpopular. 

Such is the description of these violent scenes as drawn 
by the pen of Chrysostom himself, in a letter ] written 
soon after the occurrences and addressed to Innocent I., 
Bishop of Rome, Venerius, Bishop of Milan, and Chro- 
matius, Bishop of Aquileia. ' You may imagine the rest,' 
he concludes ; c great as these calamities are, there is no 
prospect of their immediate termination ; on the contrary, 
the evil extends every day. The spirit of insubordination 
is rapidly spreading from the capital to the provinces, 
from the head to the members. Clergy rebel against 
their bishop, and one bishop assails another. People 
are, or soon will be, split into factions. All places are 
racked by the throes of coming trouble, and the confusion 
is universal. Having been informed of all these things, 
then, my most reverend and prudent lords, display, I 
pray you, the courage and zeal which becomes you in 
restraining this lawlessness which has crept into the 
churches. For if it were to become a prevailing and 

1 Vol. iii. p. 533. 



Cn. XIX.] CHRYSOSTOM WRITES TO INNOCENT. 349 

allowable custom, for any at their pleasure to pass into 
foreign and distant dioceses, and to expel whomsoever 
anyone may choose, and act as they like on their own 
private authority, be sure that all discipline will go to 
pieces, and a kind of implacable warfare will pervade the 
world, all expelling or being themselves expelled. Where- 
fore, to prevent the subjection of the world to such con- 
fusion, I beseech you to enjoin that these acts so illegally 
performed in my absence, when I had not declined fair 
judgment, may be reckoned invalid, as indeed in the 
nature of things they are, and that those who have been 
detected taking part in these iniquitous proceedings may 
be subjected to the penalty of ecclesiastical law; while 
we who have not been proved guilty may continue to 
enjoy your correspondence and friendship as aforetime.' 
He closes his letter by affirming that he was still pre- 
pared to prove his innocence and the guilt of his accusers 
before a legally constituted council. 

This letter is interesting not only in itself, but be- 
cause it illustrates remarkably the growing tendency of 
Christendom to appeal to the arbitration of the Western 
Church, and especially of the Bishop of Rome, in matters 
of ecclesiastical discipline. The law-making, law-protect- 
ing spirit of the West is invoked to restrain the tur- 
bulence and licentiousness of the East. The Patriarch 
of the Eastern Rome appeals to the great bishops of the 
West, as the champions of an ecclesiastical discipline 
which he confesses himself unable to enforce, or to see any 
prospect of establishing. No jealousy is entertained of 
the Patriarch of the old Rome by the Patriarch of the 
new. The interference of Innocent is courted, a certain 
primacy is accorded him, but at the same time he is not 
addressed as a supreme arbitrator ; assistance and sym- 
pathy are solicited from him as from an elder brother, 
and two other prelates of Italy are joint recipients with 



350 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Oh. XIX. 

him of the appeal. The effect of this letter will shortly 
be related ; for the present, the course of events at Con- 
stantinople must be followed. 

It did not suit the purpose of Acacius and his party to 
allow the congregation which had been hunted out of St. 
Sophia to proceed with their service in the baths un- 
molested. If the Emperor entered the church in the 
morning and found it deserted, the vacancy on so great a 
day would reveal too plainly the intense devotion of the 
people to their bishop. The aim of the conspirators was 
to force the people to attend the services, which were to 
be marked by the absence of Chrysostom alone. They 
accordingly applied to Anthemius, Master of the Offices, 
to disperse the congregation if necessary by force. An- 
themius, however, was a moderate, prudent man, and 
kindly disposed towards the Patriarch. He refused to 
interfere, pleading the advanced hour of the night, the 
vastness of the assembly, and the risk of serious tumult. 
He yielded, however, to their persevering and urgent 
demands so far as to direct Lucius, a subordinate officer, 
commander of a Thracian corps called the Scutarii, to 
present himself with his troops at the entrance of the 
baths, and exhort the people to return to the church, as 
the more proper place for conducting the services. He 
was strictly charged to abstain from violence. He acted 
on his instructions, and harangued the congregation, but 
without effect. The chanting of the Psalms and the ad- 
ministration of baptism to crowds of catechumens were 
proceeded with. Lucius returned and reported his errand 
ineffectual. Acacius and his colleagues urged him with 
all their eloquence, and with promises of rich reward, 
probably more effective than their golden words, to make 
another effort, and to use force if persuasion were not 
regarded. They gave him some ecclesiastics to accom- 
pany him, and as it were sanction their proceedings. 



Cn. XIX.] FRESH SCENES OF VIOLEXCE. 351 

Whether they began by exhortation is not recorded ; at 
any rate, if it was given, no attention was paid to it, and 
it was quickly seconded by barbarian violence. Lncins 
himself pushed his way to the place of baptism, and laid 
about him with a truncheon upon candidates, deacons, 
and priests, some of them aged men, and dispersed them 
in all directions. The soldiers seized and plundered the 
women of their ornaments, the clergy of their vestments, 
and the sacred vessels belonging to the Church ; they 
beat the fugitives and dragged them off to the prisons. 
The natural solitude and silence of the streets, in the hour 
immediately preceding dawn, were disturbed by the cries 
of the captives and the shouts of their brutal captors. 

In the morning the street walls were covered with 
proclamations, menacing with severe punishment any who 
persisted in maintaining intercourse with the Patriarch. 1 

The baths were effectually emptied of the congregation ; 
but to fill the churches could not so easily be accom- 
plished — in fact, they were entirely deserted. Large num- 
bers of the dispersed congregation who had escaped the 
hands of the soldiers fled outside the walls of Constanti- 
nople, and, with indefatigable zeal, sought to complete 
the celebration of the Paschal rites as best they could in 
the secure recesses of woods or valleys. A large number 
assembled in a field called Pempton, because five miles 
from the Forum of Constantine, an open space surrounded 
by wood and intended to be used as a Hippodrome. In 
the course of the day — Easter Day — the Emperor and his 
retinue happened to ride, or perhaps were maliciously 
conducted, near the spot. The eye of Arcadius was 
attracted by the sight of a large body of people, many of 
them clothed in white, crowded together outside the 
Hippodrome. Unhappily, the Emperor was attended by 
courtiers inimical to the Archbishop. They replied to 

1 Pall. Dial. c. 9. 



352 LIFE AXD TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XIX. 

his enquiries respecting the nature of the concourse, that 
it was a body of heretics who had met to worship there 
in order to escape interference. Arcadius was weak 
enough to allow, without further enquiry, a number of 
soldiers who formed part of his escort to ride in upon 
the assembly and seize the most conspicuous leaders. A 
number of priests were captured and several rich and 
noble ladies, whom the soldiers despoiled of their head- 
dresses and earrings with great barbarity, in one instance 
even tearing away with the appendage a portion of the 
ear itself. 

One more attempt was made to assemble in a wooden 
hippodrome, built by Constantino, called the Xulo Circus; 
but once more they were driven out, and hunted from 
place to place with relentless diligence. These repeated 
assaults broke up the flock of Chrysostom, the prisons 
were filled with the Johnites, as they were called after the 
name of their bishop, and the churches were empty. The 
prison walls echoed to the sound of the chants and hymns 
of the martyrs, but the churches to the noise of scourge 
and fierce threats administered to those who ventured to 
enter. This was done in the hope that they might be 
coerced by torture to anathematise the Archbishop. 1 

He himself, however, meanwhile continued to reside 
two months in his palace, though not without risk. Twice, 
as it was believed, attempts were made to assassinate him, 
but frustrated. Suspicion fell first on a man who affected 
demoniacal possession, and hovered much about the pre- 
cincts of the palace. A dagger was found upon his person ; 
the people seized him and dragged him before the prefect ; 
but Chrysostom procured his release through the inter- 
cession of some bishops, just as he was about to be ex- 
amined by torture. A second attempt was supposed to 
be intended by a slave, who ran at full speed towards the 

1 Pall. Dial. c. 9. Sozuin. viii. 21. 



Ctt. XIX.: ATTEMPTS AT ASSASSINATION. 353 

entrance of the palace, and plunged a dagger, in some 
instances with fatal effect, into several passers by who 
endeavoured to stop him. He was at last surrounded and 
captured by the people, when he confessed that he had 
been bribed by his master, a priest named Elpidins, to try 
and assassinate the Archbishop. The fury of the people 
was appeased by the imprisonment of the man ; but they 
now resolved to take the protection of their Archbishop 
into their own hands. They divided themselves into com- 
panies, which kept watch by turns, night and day, over the 
episcopal palace. The hostile party, dreading any farther 
impediments to the execution of their iniquitous sentence, 
now hurried matters to their conclusion. Five days after 
Pentecost, four bishops — Acacins, Antiochns, Severian, 
and Cyrinus — obtained an interview with the Emperor. 
They represented that the city never would be tranquil 
till the removal of the Archbishop had been effected, and 
that his remaining in the palace after his condemnation 
was a gross violation of ecclesiastical law. They avowed 
themselves willing to take the responsibility of his depo- 
sition on their own heads, and besought the Emperor not 
to be more lenient and concessive than were bishops and 
priests. 1 

June, a.d. 404. The long hoped-for mandate was at 
length issued. It was conveyed to the Archbishop by the 
notary Patricius, and informed him that Acacius and 
three other bishops having charged themselves with the 
responsibility of his deposition, he must commend himself 
to God, and quit the church and the palace without delay. 
The martyr received the cruel order with meek submission, 
and prepared to act upon it with prompt obedience. He 
passed from his palace to his church, saying to the bishops 
who accompanied him, i Come, let us pray and say farewell 
to the Angel of the Church. At my own fate I can rejoice, 

1 Pall. Dial. 10. Soz. viii. 21, 22. Soer. vi. 18. 
A A 



354 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST, CHRYSOSTOM. [Cn. XIX. 

I only grieve for the sorrow of the people.' One of his 
friends, a nobleman, conveyed a warning to him to avoid 
by a secret departure the risk of exciting popular tumult, 
He informed him that Lucius was waiting with troops in 
one of the public baths to compel his removal in the event 
of any delay or resistance, and that the consequences of 
any attempt at a rescue by the populace might be serious. 
Chrysostom acted on his advice. He entered the choir 
with his friendly bishops, bestowed on them a farewell 
kiss and farewell words ; then bidding them wait for him 
there while he went to repose, he entered the baptistry, 
and sent for the deaconesses, Olympias, Pentadia, Procla, 
and Sylvina. ' Come hither, my daughters,' he said, ' and 
hearken to me ; my career, I perceive, is coming to an 
end ; I have finished my course, and perchance ye will see 
my face no more. Now I exhort you to this, let not any 
of you break off her accustomed benevolence towards the 
Church. If any man is appointed my successor without 
having canvassed the office, and against his own will, but 
by the common consent of all, submit to his authority as 
if he were Chrysostom himself; so may ye obtain mercy. 
Remember me in your prayers.' The women threw them- 
selves at his feet, dissolved in tears. The Archbishop 
made a sign to one of the priests to remove the women, 
lest, as he said, their wailing should attract the attention 
of the people outside. He directed that the mule on 
which he was accustomed to ride should be saddled and 
taken to the western gate of the cathedral ; and while the 
people's attention was diverted by this feint, he passed 
out, unobserved, by a small door near the east end, and 
surrendered himself to some soldiers who were at hand to 
convey him to the port. So he departed from the church, 
the scene of his indefatigable labours, whose walls were 
never again to resound to his eloquence. He went out, 
and, in the emphatic words of the historian to whose nar- 



Cn. XIX.] ST. CHRYSOSTOM AGAIN EXPELLED. 355 

rative we are indebted for the minute picture of these 
occurrences, ' the Angel of the Church went out with him.' 
Two bishops, Cyriacus of Synnada in Phrygia, and Enly- 
sius of Apamea in Bythinia, accompanied him on board 
the vessel which conveyed him across the straits to the 
Bythinian const. 1 

1 Tall. Dial. c. ID. 



A A 2 



356 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [On. XX. 



CHAPTER XX. 

FURY OF THE PEOPLE AT THE REMOVAL OF CHRYSOSTOM DESTRUCTION 

OF THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH AND SENATE HOUSE BY FIRE PERSECU- 
TION OF CHRYSOSTOM' S FOLLOWERS — FUGITIVES TO ROME LETTERS 

OF INNOCENT TO THEOPHILUS — TO THE CLERGY OF CONSTANTINOPLE 
TO CHRYSOSTOM DEPUTATION OF WESTERN BISHOPS TO CON- 
STANTINOPLE REPULSED SUFFERINGS OF THE EASTERN CHURCH 

TRIUMPH OF THE CABAL. A.D. 404, 405. 

The people meanwhile, both within the church and out- 
side, were not long in discovering that the Archbishop had 
disappeared from the building and its precincts. They 
became furiously agitated : some rushed to the harbour, 
but too late to obstruct the embarcation. The doors of 
the cathedral, which had been locked by some of the cabal, 
who anticipated a rush of the people as soon as the 
departure of Chrysostom should have been discovered, 
were fiercely battered by the crowd on both sides. Jews 
and pagans looked on, and jeered derisively at the tumult. 
The horror of this scene of wild confusion was suddenly 
increased by the apparition of fire bursting forth from the 
building. How kindled, by accident or design, it is im- 
possible to determine. Each party fiercely charged the 
other with the guilt of the catastrophe, and some attri- 
buted it to miraculous interference of heavenly powers. 
The conflagration broke out in or near the throne of the 
Archbishop, which it consumed, and thence spread to the 
roof. In three hours the edifice, whose erection and 
embellishment had been the work of many years, w T as 
reduced to a heap of cinders. The only portion not 
destroyed was the treasury, which contained the sacred 
vessels of silver and gold, as if expressly to confute one 



Ch. XX.] CATHEDRAL AM) SENATE HOUSE BURNT. 357 

of the charges made against the Archbishop, that he had 
sold all the most valuable ornaments belonging to the 
church. Germanus and Cassian, the custodians of the trea- 
sury, when they fled to Borne, carried with them a copy 
of the inventor}' of all these articles, which, when they sur- 
rendered their office, had been handed over to the pre- 
fect and some of the other chief functionaries of the city. 

The conflagration, however, did not confine itself to the 
cathedral. A violent north wind carried the flames across 
the Forum, and ignited the great curia or senate house ; 
not, however, that side of it which faced the cathedral, 
but the further side, which looked into the little forum 
where the royal palace was situated. The whole senate 
house was destroyed. The statues of the Muses which 
Constantine had brought from Helicon were consumed, 
and all the other principal adornments. The images of 
Zeus and Athene alone were found intact, beneath a heap 
of ruins and of masses of molten lead which had dropped 
upon them from the burning roof. 1 

The real or affected suspicion that the Archbishop and 
his flock were the incendiaries was quite a sufficient 
pretext for treating them with rigour. He himself, with 
Cyriacus and Eulysius, was detained in chains under a 
strict guard in Bythinia. These two companions were 
taken from him and conveyed bound to Chalcedon, but 
after examination were dismissed as innocent. But at 
Constantinople the persecution was enforced with merci- 
less severity under the auspices of Optatus, a pagan, now 
prefect in the place of Studius. All the followers of the 
Archbishop, clerical and lay, high and low, were sub- 
jected, if caught, to rigorous inquisition, and most of them 
to severe punishment. Chrysostom wrote a letter from 
Bythinia to the Emperor, imploring that he might at 
least be allowed to appear and defend himself and his 
1 Pall. Dial. c. JO. Zosim. v. 24. Sozom. viii 22, 



358 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XX. 

clergy from the atrocious charge of incendiarism, but the 
letter received no attention ; and as the poor exile con- 
tinued his journey to Mce, his sufferings were enhanced 
by pitiable intelligence of the persecution inflicted on 
bishops, priests, and deacons who refused to anathematise 
him or recognise the validity of his deposition. But the 
spirit of the exile was not only brave to support his own 
troubles, but could spare some of its energy to encourage 
those who were suffering in his cause to patience, forti- 
tude, resignation, and even joy. 1 

In times of religious persecution, the language of the 
New Testament, about the blessedness of tribulation as 
a pledge of future happiness and a means of preparation 
for it, comes home to men's hearts with a reality and 
force which seem to exceed our present application of it 
to the ordinary troubles of sickness and the like. Those 
who were firmly persuaded that their cause was the cause 
of truth and of Jesus Christ read the words, 4 Blessed are 
ye when ye are persecuted for righteousness' sake,' or 
4 Happy are ye when men revile you and persecute you,' 
as if spoken directly to themselves ; and they really did 
4 rejoice in that day and leap for joy.' Such are the texts 
which Chrysostom cites for the consolation of his suffer- 
ing friends. He speaks of their exposure to intimidation 
by threats, imprisonment, frequent appearance in judges' 
courts, torture at the hands of the executioner, shameless 
false evidence, coarse ribaldry, and scurrilous jests ; but 
i blessed were they, yea, thrice blessed, and more than that, 
to endure imprisonment and chains, for not only was 
their fortitude the subject of admiration everywhere, but 
their present sufferings were the measure of their future 
happiness, and their names had been inscribed in the 
Book of Life.' 2 

The destruction of the church and senate house was 
1 Pall. Dial. c. 11. • Ep. ad Episcop. vol. iii. pp. 541 and 673. 



Cii. XX. ARSACIUS MADE ARCHBISHOP. 359 

the first pretext for instituting persecution against the 
adherents of Chrysostoni ; the second was, their refusal 
to recognise his successor. Oue week after his deposition, 
Arsacius, brother of Nectarius the predecessor of Chry- 
sostom, was, apparently by the simple exercise of Imperial 
authority, elevated to the see. He was eighty years old, 
and is quaintly described by Palladius as c muter than a 
fish, and more incapable than a frog.' 1 The probable aim 
of the Empress was to secure a man whose servility might 
be depended on. His brother, Nectarius, had once desired 
to make him Bishop of Tarsus ; and, on his declining to 
accept the promotion, had taunted him with ambitiously 
reserving himself for the See of Constantinople ; where- 
upon Arsacius had taken an oath that he never would 
accept any bishopric. But ambition and Imperial au- 
thority overcame his scruples. He is described by the 
historians as a man of pious disposition and mild conduct; 
with one exception, that he persecuted with relentless 
vigour the contumacious adherents of his predecessor. 
By Chrysostom he is denounced as a wolf, and in a figu- 
rative sense as an adulterer, on account of his usurpation 
of the see during the lifetime of its legitimate occupant. 2 
Arsacius applied to the civil powers for assistance, to 
compel the Johnites to attend the churches where he and 
his clergy officiated. A tribune was directed to attack a 
body of them who had assembled for worship in some re- 
mote part of the city. The soldiers dispersed the assem- 
bly, took several of the most eminent persons prisoners, 
and, as usual, stripped the women of their golden girdles, 
and jewels, and earrings. The only consequence of this 
was, that the Johnites became more attached to the cause 
and memory of their late Archbishop. Some of them 
fled the city, and many more refrained as much as pos- 
sible from appearing in public places, such as the Forum 

1 C. 11. ? Epist. cxxv. 



360 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHEYSOSTOM. [Ch. XX. 

and the baths. Meetings of some kind for worship were 
not discontinued, or were soon resumed, for we find 
Chrysostom, in one of his letters written during his exile, 
reproving two priests, Theophilus and Salustius, for slack- 
ness in attending such assemblies. 1 But worshippers ran 
great risks. The Prefect Optatus, who succeeded Studius, 
probably because the latter was considered too lenient, ap- 
pears to have entertained all the animosity of a thorough 
pagan against Christians, and to have rejoiced in the 
present opportunity of inflicting sufferings upon them. 
He combined the two charges of incendiarism and con- 
tumacy in his prosecution of the Johnites, and endea- 
voured to extort confessions of guilt from his victims with 
merciless barbarity. 

A few instances are recorded, and they are quite enough 
to sicken us of the tale of such horrors. Eutropius, a 
reader, was commanded to name the persons who had 
set fire to the church. He refused* He was young and 
delicate, and it was thought a confession might be wrung 
from him under the agony of torture. He was lashed 
with a scourge, his cheeks were scraped, and his sides 
lacerated with iron teeth, after which lighted torches were 
applied to the wounded parts. No information could be 
extorted from him : he was, therefore, conveyed to prison, 
and thrown into a dungeon, where he expired. Some 
priests, adherents of Arsacius, buried him by night, that 
his mangled body might not be seen by any eyes but 
those of his enemies. Celestial music was said to have 
been heard at the time of his interment. 

Tigrius, the priest, whose presence with Serapion had 
been demanded at the Synod of the Oak, was another victim. 
He was stripped, scourged on his back, and then stretched 
on the rack till his bones were dislocated. He survived 
the torture, and was banished to Mesopotamia. Serapion 

1 Epist. ccxii. 



Ch. XX.] CKRYSOSTOM'S FRIENDS PERSECUTED. 361 

himself, now Bishop of Heraclea in Thrace, was seized, 
tried on several calumnious charges, barbarously scourged, 
and sent into exile. 

Those ladies also who were most distinguished for their 
friendship with the deposed Archbishop, and for the 
dedication of their time and money to the Church, were 
marked objects of persecution. They were brought before 
the prefect, and admonished by him to acknowledge 
Ar&acius, and so save themselves from future annoyance. 
A few from timidity complied; but Olvmpias, who was 
subjected to a severer examination, confronted it with a 
dauntless spirit. She was bluntly asked why she had set 
lire to the c Great Church.' ' My manner of life,' replied 
the accused, ' is a sufficient refutation of such a charge ; a 
person who has expended large sums of money to restore 
and embellish the churches of God is not inclined to burn 
and demolish them.' '. I know your past course of life 
well,' cried the prefect. ' If you know aught against it, 
then descend from your place there as judge, and come 
forward as my accuser,' replied the undaunted Olympias. 
Perceiving that she was not to be brow-beaten, Optatus 
proposed the same course to her which had been adopted 
by some other women as a means of exemption from 
further persecution, namely, communion with Arsacius ; 
but she scornfully rejected the base compromise. c I have 
been publicly calumniated by a charge which cannot be 
proven, and I will not accede to any terms till I have 
been cleared from this accusation. Even if you resort 
to force, I will not hold communion with those from whom 
I ought to secede, nor do anything contrary to the prin- 
ciples of my holy religion.' She made a request, which 
was granted, that she might be allowed a few days to 
consult with lawyers on the proper means of legally 
refuting the libellous accusation. The prefect, however 
(on what pretence is not stated), sent for her again, and 



362 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XX. 

exacted a heavy fine, in tlie hope that she would "be in- 
duced to yield. The fine was paid without any reluctance, 
but her refusal to acknowledge the usurper was inflexible; 
and to avoid, if possible, further pressure and persecution, 
she retired to Gyzicus, on the other side of the straits. 1 

The tidings of her fortitude and loyalty were conveyed 
to the exiled Chrysostom, and so cheered his spirit in the 
midst of depression and sickness that his sufferings 
seemed to him as nothing. 6 When many men and 
women, old and young, highly reputed for their virtue, 
had turned their backs on the enemy almost before the 
conflict had begun, she, on the other hand, after many 
encounters, so far from being enervated, was even in- 
vigorated ; she spread forth the sails of patience, and 
floated securely as on a calm sea ; so far from being over- 
whelmed by the storm, she was scarcely sprinkled by the 
spray. In the seclusion of her little house she was able 
to inspire courage into the hearts of others, and had 
been to them a haven of comfort and a tower of strength.' 2 

The deaconess Pentadia, widow of the consul Timasius, 
was another victim. She led the life of a recluse, never 
going beyond the walls of her house except to church. 
She was now dragged from her retreat through the Forum 
to the prefect's tribunal, and thence to prison, charged 
with being an accomplice in the late fire. Several persons 
were put to the torture before her eyes, in order to in- 
timidate her into a confession ; but in vain. Her firm 
demeanour, courageous answers, and powerful demon- 
strations of her innocence confounded and silenced her 
adversaries, and elicited the admiration of the public. 
Beyond imprisonment no indignities seem to have been 
inflicted on her; and when desirous to quit the capital, 
she was persuaded by Chrysostom to remain, who repre- 
sented the great value of her presence and example in 

1 Soz. viii. 24. Tall. Dial. c. 20. 2 Epist. ad Olymp. vi. 



Oh. XX.] APPEALS TO THE POPE. 363 

animating others to support their present afflictions. She 
had apparently intended to try and join him in his place 
of exile, when he had been removed to Cucusus, on the 
confines of lesser Armenia, for he dwells on the great 
risk to her delicate health from a journey in winter, and 
the danger of being plundered by the Isaurian robbers, 
who were just then, he says, in a powerful condition. 
He, therefore, on all grounds, begs her to remain where 
she is, but to relieve his mind from anxiety about her 
affairs and health by constantly writing to him. 1 

Meanwhile, the injured Church of Constantinople did 
not cease through letters and emissaries to solicit the 
interference of the Western Church. The first intimation 
of the calamities we have been describing which reached 
the ears of Rome, was through a messenger despatched 
by Theophilus. The letter which he brought was in- 
scribed ' From Pope Theophilus to Pope Innocent,' and 
stated in the barest manner, without assigning his reasons 
or mentioning any assessors in his judgment, that he had 
deposed Chrysostom, and that it behoved Innocent to 
break off communion with him. The Pope was displeased 
by the cool and curt character of the letter, and somewhat 
perplexed how to notice or reply to so inexplicit a de- 
spatch. Eusebius, a deacon from Constantinople, who 
was in Rome at the time on some ecclesiastical business, 
obtained an interview with Innocent, and entreated him 
not to act till information should be received from Con- 
stantinople, w T hich, he added (on what grounds does not 
appear), he had good reason to expect would arrive in a 
short time. Three days afterwards four bishops did arrive, 
bearing the letter from Chrysostom to Innocent which 
contained that pathetic and perspicuous narrative of the 
recent occurrences, from which extracts have been made 
in the preceding chapter. They brought two other letters, 

1 Epp. xciv. and civ. 



364 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XX. 

one from the forty friendly bishops, another from the 
clergy of Constantinople. 

Innocent no longer hesitated to pronounce an opinion. 
His letter to Theophilus is brief, decisive, almost peremp- 
tory in tone. ' The See of Rome,' he said, ' would maintain 
communion with Alexandria and Constantinople to avoid 
rending the unity of the Church ; but he annulled 
(aOhrjaas) the deposition of John, apparently made by 
Theophilus. It was impossible to recognise the validity 
of a sentence pronounced by such an irregular synod as 
that lately convened at Chalcedon. If Theophilus had 
confidence in the justice of that sentence, he must appear 
in person to prove it before a General Council called 
together and regulated according to the Canons of Nice.' 
A few days after the despatch of this letter, Peter, an 
Alexandrian priest, arrived with a deacon from Constan- 
tinople, bearing another letter from Theophilus, and 
certain minutes, so called, of the acts of the Synod at the 
Oak. Innocent, having perused the minutes, was indignant 
at the mingled monstrosity and levity of the charges 
brought against Chrysostom, and. at the condemnation 
having been pronounced in the absence of the defendant. 
He ordered special prayers and fasts to be observed by the 
Church for the restoration of concord, and addressed to 
Theophilus a sharp letter of reproof. 1 

It is not easy to make out precisely how many com- 
munications passed each way between the Churches of 
Rome and Constantinople, or the exact date of each, but 
several letters are distinctly mentioned. Theotecnus, a 
priest from Constantinople, brought a letter from twenty - 
five of the forty bishops who had constantly adhered to 
Chrysostom, in which they described the expulsion of the 
Patriarch and the conflagration of the church. Innocent 
replied by a letter of condolence, and exhortation to bear 
1 Pall. Dial. cc. 1, 2, 3. 



Oh. XX FUGITIVES TO ROME. 365 

their trial with Christian fortitude and patience, for at 
present he confessed, with deep regret, that he saw small 
prospect of rendering much effectual aid, ' owing to the 
opposition of certain persons powerful for evil,' alluding 
probably to the jealousies between the Courts of the two 
brothers, Honorius and Arcadius. The cabal also sent a 
letter to Innocent, containing their version of the late 
transactions. Their emissary was Paternus, who called 
himself a priest of Constantinople ; ' an ugly little fellow,' 
says Palladius, ' and very unintelligible.' The letter was 
written in the names of Arsacius, Paulus, Antiochus, 
Cyrinus, Severian, and some others; and, among other 
opprobrious charges, distinctly accused Chrysostom of 
setting tire to the church. Innocent treated the letter 
with much disdain, and would not condescend to answer 
it. Some days afterwards, Cyriacus, Bishop of Synnada, 
arrived in Rome as a fugitive, in consequence of an Im- 
perial edict, which directed the deposition of any bishop 
who refused to communicate with Arsacius and Theo- 
philus, and the confiscation of his property, if he had any. 
After Cyriacus arrived Eulysius, Bishop of Apamea in 
Bithynia, bringing a letter from fifteen of the forty 
friendly bishops, which described all the past and present 
distress of the Church caused by Chrysostom's enemies, 
and in all respects confirmed the oral account of Cyriacus. 
In the course of another month, Palladius, Bishop of 
Hellenopolis, fled to Rome from the intolerable harshness 
of magisterial decrees, which now subjected to confisca- 
tion the house of anyone who should be found to have 
harboured bishop, priest, or even layman, who communi- 
cated with Chrysostom. From a letter of Chrysostom \ 
it appears, that Palladius and many others lived for some 
time in concealment at Constantinople, in the hope of 
escaping persecution. They were courteously lodged in 

1 Ep. cxiii. 



366 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XX. 

Rome by one Piniairus and his wife, by Juliana, Proba, 
and other Roman ladies, whom Chrysostom warmly thanks 
for their kindness in letters written by him from Cucusus. 1 
Germanus the priest, and Cassian the deacon, custodians 
of the Church treasury at Constantinople, also came to 
Rome, bringing a letter from the whole body of the clergy 
who adhered to Chrysostom, describing the violent depo- 
sition and expulsion of the Archbishop, and the tyranny of 
their adversaries under which they were now suffering. 2 

The reply of Innocent to this letter from the clergy of 
Constantinople is dignified as well as sympathetic. He 
exhorts, as usual, to patience, and to the derivation of 
comfort from the remembrance of the sufferings of all 
God's saints in past times. But he deeply deplores their 
wrongs, and again expresses his reprobation in the 
strongest terms of the illegality of the late proceedings. 
i The canon which prohibited the ordination of a successor 
during the lifetime of the reigning bishop had been grossly 
violated. The Canons of Antioch, on which the synod 
had relied, were invalid, having been composed by here- 
tics, and they had been rejected by the Council of Sardica. 
The Canons of Nice alone were entitled to the obedience 
of the Church ; but adversaries and heretics were always 
attempting to subvert them.' . . . . c What steps, then, 
should be taken in the existing crisis ? Plainly a General 
Council must be convoked ; that was the only means of 
appeasing the fury of the tempest. He was watching an 
opportunity to accomplish this ; meanwhile, they must 
wait in patience, and trust the goodness of God for the 
restoration of tranquillity and good order.' 

To Chrysostom Innocent wrote, as friend to friend, 
as a bishop to a brother bishop, a letter of Christian con- 
solation and encouragement, not entering into the legal 
questions of the case, and not pledging himself to decisive 

* Ej^p. clxviii. clxix. et alise. - Pall. Dial. c. 3. 



Cn. XX.] INTERCESSION OF THE POPE. 367 

action of any kind. ' It was not necessary to remind one, 
who was himself the teacher and pastor of a great people, 
that God often tried the best of men, and put their 
patience to the severest tests, and that they are firmly 
supported under the greatest calamities by the approving 
voice of conscience.' . . . ' A good man may be severely 
tried, but cannot be overcome, since he is preserved and 
guarded by the truth of Holy Scripture. Holy Scripture 
supplied abundant examples of suffering saints who did 
not receive their crowns until they had undergone the 
heaviest trials with patience. Take courage then, honoured 
brother, from the testimony of conscience. When you 
have been purified by affliction, you will enter into the 
haven of peace in the presence of Christ our Lord.' l 

At the same time, Innocent took all possible measures 
to obtain the council which he had recommended to the 
Church of Constantinople as the only means of redressing 
her wrongs. He wrote a letter to Honorius, then at 
Eavenna, representing the lamentable condition of the 
Church of Constantinople, which elicited from the Em- 
peror an order for the convention of an Italian synod. 
This synod, after a due consideration of all the circum- 
stances, was to submit its decision and suggestions to 
himself. The result of the deliberations of the Italian 
bishops, swayed no doubt by Innocent, was to request the 
Emperor to write to his brother Arcadius, urging the 
convocation of a General Council to be held in Thessalo- 
nica, which would be a convenient meeting-point for the 
prelates of East and West. Honorius complied, and the 
letter was despatched under the care of a deputation from 
the Italian Church, consisting of five bishops, two priests, 
and a deacon. The Emperor calls it the third letter 2 

1 Soz. viii. 26. in the Church of St. Sophia, and at 

2 One previous letter we possess in the gross violation of justice and law 
Chrys. vol. iii. p. 539, in which he ex- in the recent so-called trial of Chry- 
presses his horror at the late outrages sostom. 



368 LIFE AND TBIES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Cu. XX. 

which lie had written relative to the affairs of Constanti- 
nople. He professes great solicitude for the peace of the 
Church, ( on which/ he observes, ' the peace of our Empire 
depends ; ' and with a view to this object, he urges the 
convocation of a council at Thessalonica, and specially 
entreats that the attendance of Theophilus, who was, he 
is informed, author of all these disturbances, should be in- 
sisted upon. He commends the deputation to the honour- 
able care of Arcadius ; and that he may know the senti- 
ments of the Italian Church on the present state of affairs, 
he sends him two letters as samples of many, one from the 
Bishop of Rome, the other from the Bishop of Aquileia. 

The only bishop on the deputation whose see is men- 
tioned was iEmilius, Bishop of Beneventum. The Ori- 
ental refugees, Cyriacus, Demetrius, Palladius, and Eu- 
lysius, accompanied the Italians. They were the bearers 
not only of letters from Honorius, Innocent, and the 
bishops Chromatius of Aquileia and Venerius of Milan, 
but also of a memorial from the Italian synod, which 
recommended that Chrysostom should be reinstated in 
his see before he was required to take his trial before a 
council. He would then, it was observed, have no reason- 
able excuse for declining to attend it. The deputation 
was absent four months. On their return the members 
had a pitiful tale to tell of failure in their errand, and of 
personal suffering from maltreatment. They touched at 
Athens on their voyage out, whence they had intended to 
proceed to Thessalonica, and lay the letters first of all 
before Anysius, bishop of that place ; but at Athens they 
were arrested by a military officer, who placed them on 
board two vessels under charge of a centurion, to be con- 
veyed to Constantinople. A furious southerly gale sprang 
up soon after their departure, and, after a voyage of some 
danger, they arrived, late on the third day, at the suburb 
of Constantinople called Victor. But, instead of being 



Cn. XX.] ENVOYS FROM THE WEST MALTREATED. 3G9 

permitted to proceed to the city, they were shut up in a 
fortress named Athyra, on the coast — the Romans in a 
single chamber, the Orientals in separate apartments. 
No servant even was permitted to attend them. They 
were commanded to deliver up the letters which the} r had 
brought, but refused, as being ambassadors, to surrender 
them to any but to the Emperor himself. Secretaries and 
messengers were sent in succession, but the ambassadors 
stedfastly adhered to their refusal. The letters were at 
length wrested from their possession by sheer violence : 
one bishop's thumb was broken in the struggle. On the 
following day a large bribe was offered them if they would 
recognise Atticus (the aged Arsacius was now dead) as 
Patriarch, and say no more about the trial of Chrysostom. 
This base proposal was firmly resisted ; and, seeing the 
utter hopelessness of their mission, they requested to be 
released as soon as possible, and suffered to return to their 
dioceses in safety. The Italians saw no more of their 
companions from the East. They themselves were thrust 
into a miserable vessel, with twenty soldiers of various 
grades, and conveyed to Lampsacus, on the Asiatic coast, 
where they embarked in another vessel, and, after a 
tedious voyage of twenty days, arrived at Hydruntum, in 
Calabria. 1 

Neither the Papacy nor the Empire of the West were 
sufficiently powerful at this time to insist further upon 
justice being done to the Patriarch, in the face of 
the determined animosity of the ruling powers at Con- 
stantinople; but the friends of the martyr deemed that 
they read unequivocal signs of the Divine displeasure 
in the misfortunes which befell some of Chrysostom's 
greatest personal enemies. Thrace and Illyria were 
ravaged by an incursion of Huns, and the Isaurians, a 
predatory barbarian race, which inhabited the fastnesses 

1 Pall. Dial. c. 4. 
B B 



370 LIFE AND TBIES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XX. 

of Mount Taurus, committed fearful havoc in Syria and 
Asia Minor. Cyrinus, Bishop of Chalcedon, one of the 
four who had taken on them the responsibility of Chry- 
sostorn's condemnation, died in great agony from the 
wound in his foot, originally caused when his foot had been 
trodden upon by Bishop Maruthas, more than a year ago, 
just before the Synod of the Oak. At the end of Septem- 
ber, Constantinople was visited by a destructive fall of 
hailstones of extraordinary size; and on October 6, a.d. 
404, died the Empress Eudoxia. Mlus, one of the most emi- 
nent anchorites of the day, once Prefect of Constantinople, 
who had abandoned wealth, family, and position for the 
solitudes of Mount Sinai, addressed two letters of reproof 
and warning to Arcadius on the iniquitous banishment 
of Chrysostom and inhuman persecution of his followers. 
6 How can you expect to see Constantinople delivered from 
visitations of earthquake and fire from Heaven, after the 
enormities which have there been perpetrated ; after crime 
has been established there by the authority of laws ; after 
the thrice-blessed John, the pillar of the Church, the 
lamp of truth, the trumpet of Jesus Christ, has been 
driven from the city ? How can I grant my prayers 
(Arcadius had apparently begged the intercession of the 
saint to remove the national troubles) to a city stricken 
by the wrath of God, whose thunder is every moment 
ready to fall upon her ? ' l 

But human and divine warnings were alike wasted ; the 
enemies of the Patriarch had complete sway over the 
Court, and suffered it not to swerve from the path of 
persecution. The Western bishops and presbyters, after 
the disastrous termination of their embassy to Constanti- 
nople, returned home, without honour indeed, but un- 
molested. Their Eastern colleagues did not escape so 
easily. They were conveyed to places of exile in the most 

1 Nilus, 2 Epp. cclxv. and cclxxix. Soz. viii. 25, 



Cn. XX.] DEATH OF ARSACIUS. 371 

distant and opposite quarters of the Empire. Cyriacus 
was confined in a Persian fortress beyond Emessa ; 
Eulysius in Arabia; Palladius on the confines of Ethiopia; 
Demetrius was to have been confined in one of the Eg}~p- 
tian oases, but died of the harsh treatment to which he 
was subjected on the journey. The exiles suffered such 
biutal insults and indignities from the soldiers who con- 
ducted them to these places, that the desire of life was 
extinguished. The little money which they had collected 
for the expenses of their journey was taken from them by 
their guards, who divided it among themselves. They 
were forced to perform in one day the distance of two 
days' journey. They were not permitted to enter any 
churches on their route, but forced into Jewish or Sama- 
ritan synagogues, and lodged at night in low inns, where 
their ears were shocked by the filthy conversation of 
abandoned characters of both sexes. Yet even some of 
these degraded people were won to a more respectful 
behaviour, if not actually converted, by the Christian ex- 
hortations and instruction of the captives. The 'Word 
of God was not bound.' Some of the bishops friendly 
to Theophilus bribed the soldiers to hurry the exiles out 
of their dioceses as quickly as possible. Distinguished 
among these malignants were the Bishops of Tarsus, An- 
tioch, Ancyra, and of Csesarea in Palestine. Most of the 
bishops of Cappadocia, on the other hand, especially 
Theodorus of Tyana, and Bosporius of Colonia, accorded 
them a compassionate and courteous reception. 1 

Arsacius died in November, a.d. 404. Out of many 
ambitious candidates for the vacant throne, Atticus, a 
presbyter, who had taken an active part in the persecu- 
tion of Chrysostom, a native of Sebaste in Armenia, was 
appointed. He was a man of moderate abilities and 
generally mild disposition, but relentless in his dcter- 

1 Pall. Dial. 20. 

B B 2 



372 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [On. XX. 

mination to crush out the party of the exiled Patriarch. 
By his influence an Imperial rescript was obtained, which 
decreed that ' any bishop who did not communicate with 
Theophilus, Porphyry of Antioch, and Atticus, should be 
ejected from the Church, and his property confiscated.' 
The wealthy, for the most part, bowed to the storm ; the 
poor sought peace of body and of conscience in flight 
either to Rome or monasteries. This rescript, aimed at 
the bishops, was followed up by another directed against 
the laity. Any layman who refused to recognise the above- 
mentioned prelates was, if a civilian, to be deprived of 
any office which he might hold, if a soldier, of his mili- 
tary girdle, if an artisan, to be heavily fined or banished. 
Bishops and presbyters were dispersed as fugitives into 
all parts of the Empire. Some sought retirement in 
some secluded little country property of their own, and 
obtained a precarious livelihood by manual labour, farm- 
ing, or even fishing. 1 

But, in spite of all the various means of coercion at 
Constantinople, in spite of trials, torture, imprisonment, 
banishment, the bulk of the people could not be brought 
to attend the ministration of Atticus and his clergy. 
Their churches were comparatively empty, while the 
persecuted adherents of the exile persistently held their 
services in some sequestered valley, or on some lonely hill- 
side. In fact, persecution, as has always been the case, 
brought out and intensified the attachment of many to 
the person and the cause which it was intended to crush, 
and so far defeated its own object. Chrysostom himself 
observes, 2 that many of those who had enjoyed a high 
reputation for piety were the first to fall away when 
brought to the test of persecution ; whereas others who 
had formerly been abandoned to frivolity and vice, now 
renounced the theatre and circus, hastened into the 

1 Sozom. viii. 27. Pall. Dial. 20. 2 Ep. ad eos qui scandalizati sunt, c. 19. 



0"70 



Ch. XX.: SEE OF ANTIOCH USURPED. 6 i 3 

desert to attend the assembly of the Catholics at worship, 
and displayed the greatest fortitude before the judge 
when brought to trial, in the face of torture, and with the 
prospect of imprisonment or exile. 

The party now in power could not convert the hearts 
of clergy or people to their side, but they could, and did, 
change the outward aspect of the Church. The men of 
probity and piety with whom Chrysostom had replaced 
the six simoniacal bishops deposed in Asia were expelled, 
and the delinquents restored. The Church in that region 
was reduced to a disgraceful state. Ordinations were 
conducted, not amidst prayer and fasting, but feasting, 
drunkenness, and gross bribery. The See of Heracleides, 
the good Bishop of Ephesus, appointed by Chrysostom, 
was occupied by a eunuch, a monster of iniquity. The 
people in disgust deserted the churches. 

The death of Flavian, Bishop of Antioch, nearly coin- 
cided with the banishment of Chrysostom. The people 
of Antioch were much attached to a priest named Con- 
stantius, a man described by Palladius as a faithful and 
incorruptible servant of the Church from his earliest 
youth, first as a messenger who carried ecclesiastical 
despatches, then as reader, deacon, priest. He had won 
the love and admiration of the people by his gentle, 
amiable disposition, his intelligence, strict integrity, and 
exemplary piety. There was a general desire to make 
him bishop, but an ambitious priest named Porphyry 
frustrated the design. By bribery, and calumnious stories 
conveyed to the Court at Constantinople, he procured an 
Imperial rescript, condemning Constantius to be banished 
to one of the oases as a disturber of the people. With 
the assistance of his friends Constantius escaped to 
Cyprus. Porphyry meanwhile imprisoned several of the 
clergy of Antioch, and seized the opportunity of the 
Olympian festival (when most of the inhabitants had 



374 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XX. 

poured out to the celebrated suburb of Daphne) to enter 
the church with a few bishops and clergy ; and then, with 
doors fast closed, he was hurriedly ordained, so hurriedly 
that some portions of the service were omitted. Acacius, 
Severian, and Antiochus, who had officiated, immediately 
fled. The people were enraged when they discovered the 
trick, surrounded Porphyry's house, and threatened to 
burn it to the ground. He applied for protection to the 
prefect, who lent him a body of troops, with which he 
forcibly took possession of the church. He contrived to 
get an unscrupulous and cruel man sent from Constan- 
tinople to be captain of the city guards, terror of whom 
drove the people to attend the churches, though they did 
so with disgust, and earnestly prayed for retribution from 
Heaven on the authors of this wickedness. 1 

Innocent remained inflexibly attached to the cause of 
Chrysostom. The Church of Eome and the Italian bishops 
broke off all communion with Theophilus and Atticus, 
and ceased not to demand the convocation of a General 
Council, as the only tribunal by which the Patriarch could 
be lawfully acquitted or condemned. 2 But the Court of 
Ravenna was not in a position to support these demands 
by intimidation or actual force. All the skill of Stilicho 
and all the resources at his command were barely suf- 
ficient to repel the persevering efforts of Alaric and 
Rhadagaisus to take the great prize which they so 
eagerly coveted, the capital of the Roman Empire. The 
inevitable fall of Rome was averted only for a little while. 

Thus the spirit of lawlessness and selfishness took ad- 
vantage of the impotence of the secular power both in 
Rome and Constantinople to work its will upon the 
Church. It dealt a blow to Christian morality and eccle- 
siastical discipline from which the Church at Constan- 
tinople never recovered, and which caused a throb of pain 

• Pull. Dial. co. 15 and 16. 2 Theod. v. 31. 






Cn. XX.] DEGRADATION OF THE CHURCH. 375 

from one end of Christendom to the other ; for, in spite of 
all differences and divisions, Christendom was one then, so 
that, if one member suffered, all the members suffered with 
it ; and what was done and said, and thought and felt, 
in the Church of Alexandria, or Antioch, or Constan- 
tinople, was not unknown or unregarded by the Churches 
of Koine or Milan, and through them made its impress 
on the Churches even of Gaul and Spain. 



376 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXI. 



CHAPTER XXI, 

CHRYSOSTOM ORDERED TO BE REMOVED TO CUCUSUS — PERILS EN- 
COUNTERED AT 02ESAREA — HARDSHIPS OF THE JOURNEY REACHES 

CUCUSUS LETTERS WRITTEN THERE TO OLYMPIAS AND OTHER 

FRIENDS. A.D. 404. 

It now only remains to follow the illustrious exile along 
his painful journey to its melancholy, or, regarding him 
as the Christian martyr, its glorious termination. 

He was removed, as has been already seen, from Con- 
stantinople on June 20, and conveyed, in the course of 
a few days, to Nice. Here he remained till July 4, 
and several of his letters to Olympias were written from 
this place. The air of that locality, soft yet freshened by 
the sea, revived his health, which had suffered from the 
feverish and harassing scenes which he had gone through 
at Constantinople, and from the journey begun in the 
very middle of the summer heat. Nothing could exceed 
the kindness of the soldiers under whose custody he 
travelled, who discharged towards him all" the duties of 
servants as well as of guards. 1 His ultimate destination 
was not known for some time by himself or his friends. 
Common report sent him to Scythia, 2 but the intention 
of his enemies appears to have changed from time to time. 
Sebaste in Armenia had been first proposed, but finally 
Cucusus, a village in the Tauric range on the edge of 
Cilicia and the lesser Armenia, was fixed upon. It was a 
remote and desolate spot, subject to frequent attacks from 
the marauding Isaurians ; and at first Chrysostom earn- 
estly entreated his friends in Constantinople to try and 

1 Epp. x. xi. z Ep. xiii. 



Cu. XXL] THE MISSION IN PHOENICIA. 377 

procure a more agreeable place of exile, a favour fre- 
quently granted to criminals. Olyinpias, Bishop Cyriacus, 
Briso the chamberlain, and a lady named Theodora, 
repeatedly interceded on his behalf; but their efforts were 
in effectual. ' The E mpress herself, it would appear, selected 
Cucusus, and was inexorable in her decision. 2 

From beginning to end of his exile Chrysostom's mind 
was occupied with organising such work as yet remained 
possible to him. It has been seen with what zeal he had 
planted a missionary settlement in Phoenicia. This pro- 
ject continued to the close of his life to be an object of 
his most solicitous interest. On July 3, the eve of his 
departure from Nice, he addressed a letter to a priest 
named Constantius, 3 apparently the surperintendent of 
the missionary work in Phoenicia and the surrounding 
countries. He implores him to prosecute his labours for 
the extirpation of paganism with zeal undiminished, and 
undismayed by the present afflicted state of the bishop 
and the see, to whom the mission owed its origin. ' The 
pilot and the physician, far from relaxing their efforts 
when the ship and the patient are in peril, redouble their 
efforts to save them.' He begs Constantius to inform 
him year by year how many temples are destroyed, how 
many churches built, how many good Christians immi- 
grate into Phoenicia. He had himself persuaded a re- 
cluse, whom he found at Nice, to go and place himself 
under the direction of Constantius in the missionary 
work. He had, he says, happily concluded, just about the 
time of his deposition, arrangements for the suppression 
of Marcionism, which was very prevalent at Salamis, in 
Cyprus. He begs Constantius to write to his friend 
Bishop Cyriacus, if still in Constantinople, and request 
him to carry these plans into effect. Finally, he implores 
the prayers of Constantius and all faithful people for the 

1 Epp. cxx. cxxi. 2 Ep. cxxv. in fine. 3 Ep. ccxxi. 



378 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXI. 

cessation of the present calamities of the Church, espe- 
cially of the intolerable evils which had befallen it in 
Asia ; alluding no doubt to the restoration of the simonia- 
cal bishops. 

On July 4 or 5 the exile started from Nice on his 
toilsome and perilous journey in the midsummer heat, 
across the scorching plains of Gralatia and Cappadocia. 
He describes himself 1 as an object of great compas- 
sion to travellers whom he met coming from Armenia 
and the East, who stopped to weep and wail over his 
distress. His route lay in a diagonal line across the 
centre of Asia Minor, ascending first of all near the 
stream of the river Sangarius, which in its upper course 
winds through vast plains of black bituminous soil, 
scantly cultivated, but supplying pasture to great herds 
of cattle. Chrysostom had always been an ascetic liver, 
but he had not a robust frame, and he had been accus- 
tomed to wholesome food and the frequent use of the 
bath. Continuous travelling by night as well as day, the 
scorching sun, hot dust, hard bread, brackish water, and 
deprivation of the bath, threw him into a fever ; but, either 
from fear of the Isaurians, or of Leontius, Bishop of 
Ancyra, in Galatia, one of his most virulent enemies, 
the journey was prosecuted without intermission, till he 
arrived, more dead than alive, at Csesarea, in Cappadocia. 

He has left us a detailed account of the perils which 
befell him here, and a melancholy picture indeed it is of 
the ferocity and cunning of which bishops and monks 
were capable under the influence of fanatical partisan- 
ship. 2 Having escaped, he says, from the Galatian (pro- 
bably meaning Leontius), he was met, as he approached 
Ca)sarea., by several persons, who informed him that Pha- 
retrius the bishop was eagerly expecting him, and pre- 
paring to welcome him with affectionate hospitality. He 

1 Ep. viii. 2 Ep. xiv. 



Cii. XXL] VIOLENT SCENES AT C-ESAREA. 379 

confesses that he himself mistrusted these specious offers, 
bat he kept his suspicious to himself. On his arrival at 
Cccsarea, in a state of extreme exhaustion, Pharetrius did 
not appear, but he was enthusiastically received by the 
people as well as some monks and nuns. The extreme 
kindness and skill of physicians (one of whom declared his 
intention of accompanying him to the end of his journey), 
•wholesome food, and the use of the bath so much reno- 
vated his strength and diminished his fever, that he be- 
came anxious in a day or two to resume his journey. 
But just at this juncture the city was thrown into con- 
sternation by tidings that a large body of Isaurians was 
ravaging the neighbourhood, and had already burned a 
town with much slaughter. All the available troops in 
Caesarea were marched out, and the whole male popu- 
lation, including old men, turned out to man the walls. 
During this time of suspense, the house in which Ckry- 
sostom lodged was besieged by a large body of monks, 
who with furious cries and gestures demanded the sur- 
render of Chrysostom. The praetorians who guardel 
him were terrified by the fierce behaviour of these fana- 
tics, and declared that they would rather face the Isaurians 
than fall into the hands of thesa ' wild beasts.' The 
governor of the city succeeded in protecting the person 
of Chrysostom, but not in quelling the fury of the monks, 
who renewed their assault still more hotly on the following 
day. The Bishop Pharetrius was very generally suspected 
to be the instigator of these attacks, and an appeal was 
made to him to interpose his authority, that the Arch- 
bishop might at least enjoy a few days' repose, which the 
state of his health greatly needed. But the envy of 
Pharetrius was embittered by the popularity of Chrysos- 
tom, and the great kindness and compassion which his 
hardships had elicited from clergy and people. He refused 
to interfere ; but Chrysostom's friends took advantage of 



380 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXT. 

a brief lull in the hostile visits of the monks to convey 
him in a litter outside the town, amidst the lamentations 
of the attendant people, and imprecations on the author 
of the malevolent assaults. When he was once outside 
the town several of the clergy joined him, and besought 
him not to think of trusting himself to Pharetrius ; it 
would be worse they declared than falling into the hands 
of the Isaurians : ' only escape from our hands, and 
wherever you fall you will fall safely.' 

At this crisis a lady named Seleucia, the wife of Eu- 
finus, a man of rank and a friend of Chrysostom, entreated 
him to accept a lodging at her country-house, about five 
miles out of the city. He accepted the offer; but, un- 
known to him, Pharetrius, whose rage was inflamed by 
the rescue of his prey, visited the house, and threatened 
to take vengeance on the mistress if her guest was not 
surrendered. This demand was refused, and the lady 
gave orders to her steward, in the event of any attack by 
monks, to collect all the labourers on the estate and repel 
the assault by force. But her courage at last gave way 
under the pressure of incessant menaces from Pharetrius, 
and it was resolved to remove the Archbishop, not less 
for his own safety than for that of the person whose roof 
had afforded him shelter. In the dead of night, when 
Chrysostom was sleeping, unconscious of impending dan- 
ger, he was roused by a companion, the priest Evethius, 
who told him that he must instantly prepare for flight. 
It was midnight, and the sky murky and moonless ; but 
they dared not light torches for fear of attracting the 
observation of their enemies. The road was rugged and 
rocky ; the mule which carried the Archbishop's litter fell, 
and he was thrown out. Evethius took him by the hand 
and led, or rather dragged, him along. In such a pitiable 
plight, faint with fatigue and fever- stricken, did the bishop 
of the second see in Christendom stumble and totter 



Ch. XXL] ARRIVAL AT CUCUSUS. 381 

in the darkness along (he Oappadocian mountain path. 
* Were not these calamities,' he writes to Olmpias, ' 6 suffi- 
cient to blot out many sins, and suggest to me a hope 
of future glory ? ' 

Of the remainder of his journey to Cucusus we possess 
no detailed narrative. He only speaks in general terms 
of his sufferings for thirty days from fever, aggravated by 
deprivation of the body, and by deficient accommodation of 
every kind in a journey made along a rough road, through 
a desolate mountainous country, liable to an attack at 
any moment from Isaurian bandits. 1 Desolate though 
the region was, however, he speaks of monks and nuns 
occasionally meeting him in large numbers, and loudly 
bewailing his calamities, exclaiming that it ' had been 
better the sun should have hidden his rays, thau that the 
mouth of Chrysostom should have been closed. 2 About 
seventy days 3 after his departure from Constantinople, 
that is, about the end of August or beginning of Sep- 
tember, Cucusus was reached. After the fatigues and 
dangers of his journey, it was a haven of rest to the 
exhausted exile, though he describes it as in itself the 
most desolate place in the world ; a mere village high up 
in the eastern range of Taurus, on the confines of lesser 
Armenia, Cilicia, and Cappadocia. 4 But it was protected 
from the Isaurians by a strong garrison, and it contained 
many warm-hearted friends of the Archbishop, who emu- 
lated one another in showing him attention. Several had 
sent invitations to him, before he left Csesarea, to accept 
a lodging at their houses, but more especially one whom 
he calls ' my Lord Diodorus,' who had known him in Con- 

1 Epp. xiii. lxxxiv. as Cocusus (pp. 10, 13). It stood at 

2 Ep. cxxy. the confluence of several roads, but 

3 Ep. ccxxxiv. apparently not high roads, one of 
* Epp. ccxxxiv. ccxxxvi. It is not which connected Antioch with Asia 

mentioned in Pliny or Ptolemy, but Minor, 
appears in the Itinerary of Antonine 



382 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXL 

stantinople. This generous personage not only placed 
his whole honse at the disposal of Chrysostom, betaking 
himself to a country villa to make room for his guest, but 
furnished it with every possible defence against the cold 
of the approaching winter, in that altitude very severe. 
The Bishop of Cucusus not only received him with great 
civility, but was even desirous that his own throne should 
be occupied by the illustrious exile, that his flock might 
profit by the eloquence of the greatest teacher and 
preacher of the day ; but Chrysostom thought it prudent 
to decline the honour. 1 

Many of his friends in Constantinople and other places, 
who owned property near Cucusus, directed their stewards 
to provide in various ways for the comfort of the exile, 
and some of his friends actually came to share his fortunes 
in person. The aged deaconess, Sabiniana, arrived from 
Constantinople with the fixed determination of accom- 
panying him to his final place of exile, whatever that 
might be. Constantius, the presbyter of Antioch, whom 
the people had wished to make bishop, also took up his 
abode at Cucusus, as well to escape from the persecution 
of Porphyry as from his zealous attachment to Chrysos- 
tom. 2 Thus the natural disadvantages of the place, the 
want of good physicians and of a plentiful market, the 
severity of the heat in summer and cold in winter, were 
largely compensated by the enjoyment of freedom, rest, 
and the kind attention of friends. He warns his sup- 
porters in Constantinople, who were endeavouring to 
procure a change of destination for him, to be careful 
that he was not removed to a place worse than Cucusus, 
where he possessed all substantial necessaries and comforts 
of life. If, however, they thought there was a chance of 
obtaining Cyzicus or Nicomedia, they were not to desist 
from their efforts ; but he was convinced that another 

1 Ep. cxxv. in fine. 2 Ep. xiii. 



Ob. XXI.] LETTERS TO OLYMPIAS. 383 

long and fatiguing journey to a spot as remote and 
desolate as Cucusus would kill him. 1 

The leisure of the exile was profitably employed in 
writing letters to every variety of friends — men of rank, 
ladies, deaconesses in Constantinople, bishops, clergy, 
missionary monks, and his kind acquaintances in Cassarea, 
especially the physician Hymnetius, who had attended 
him there with affectionate care. As might be expected, 
none of his letters describe his condition so minutely or 
pour forth so unrestrainedly his fears, hopes, his causes of 
distress or joy, as those written to Olympias. The style 
in which she is usually addressed is at once respectful, 
affectionate, and paternal : ' To my lady, the most reve- 
rend and religious deaconess Olympias, Bishop John 
sends you greeting in the Lord.' They are seventeen in 
number, written at different stages of his exile ; nor is it 
possible to determine precisely the date of each. The 
first three seem to have been written from Cucusus, and 
are mainly devoted to the aim of consoling her under the 
present calamities of the Church, to dissipating, as he 
expresses it, that cloud of sorrow which surrounded her. 2 
8 Come now, let me soften the wound of your sadness, and 
disperse the sad cogitations which compose this gloomy 
cloud of care. What is it which upsets your mind, and 
occasions your grief and despondency? Is it the fierce 
and lowering storm which has overtaken the Churches 
and enveloped all with the darkness of a moonless night, 
which is growing to a head every day, and has already 
wrought many lamentable shipwrecks ? All this I know, 
it shall not be gainsaid ; and, if you like, I can form an 
image of the things now being done so as to represent the 
tragedy more distinctly to thee. We behold a sea heaved 
up from its lowest depths, some sailors floating dead, 
others struggling in the waves, the planks of the vessel 

1 Epp. xiii. xiy. ccxxxiv. 2 Vol. iii. p. 549 et seq. 



384 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXI. 

breaking up, the masts sprung, the canvas torn, the oars 
clashed out of the sailors' hands, the pilots, seated on the 
deck, clasping their knees with their hards, and crying 
aloud at the hopelessness of their situation ; neither sky 
nor sea clearly visible, but all one impenetrable gloom, 
and monsters of the deep attacking the shipwrecked crew 
on every side. But why attempt further to describe the 
indescribable ? Yet, when I see all this, I do not despair, 
when I consider who is the Disposer of this whole uni- 
verse — One who masters the storm not by the contrivance 
of art, but can calm it by his nod alone. He does not 
always destroy what is terrible in its beginning, but waits 
till it has come to its consummation ; and then, when most 
men are in despair, He works marvels and does things 
beyond all expectation, displaying a power which belongs 
to Him alone. Wherefore, faint not, for there is only 
one thing, Olympias, which is really terrible, there is only 
one real trial — and that is sin. All things else, whether 
they be insidious assaults of foes, or hatred, or calumny, 
or abuse, or confiscation of goods, or exile, or the sharp- 
ened sword, and war raging throughout the world, are but 
as a tale ; they endure but for a season, they are perish- 
able, and have their sphere in a mortal body, and do no 
injury to the vigilant soul.' . . . e Why, then, do you fear 
temporal things, which flow away like the stream of a 
river ? ' . . . c Let none of these things which happen vex 
you ; cease to entreat the help of this person or that, but 
continually beseech Jesus Christ, whom you serve, merely 
to bow the head, and all these troubles will be dissolved ; 
if not in an instant of time, that is because He is waiting 
till wickedness has grown to a height, and then He will 
suddenly change the storm into a calm. . . .' 

He enters into an eloquent review of the sufferings and 
persecution to which our blessed Lord was subjected from 
his birth to his death, in order to prove that apparent 



Ch. XXL] LETTERS TO OLYMPIAS. 385 

failure is a fallacious test of the truth and real value of 
man's character and work. 

6 Why are you troubled because one man has been 
expelled and another introduced into his place ? Christ 
was crucified, and the life of Barabbas, the robber, was 
asked. How man} r must have been shocked and repelled 
by this ignominious termination to a life of miracles ! But 
in every stage of his life there was much to surprise and 
offend, and try the faith. His birth was the cause of 
death to many innocent children in Bethlehem ; poverty, 
danger, exile, marked his infancy. He was misunder- 
stood and suspected throughout his ministry. " Thou art 
a Samaritan and hast a devil ; " " He deceiveth the 
people ; " " He caste th out devils through the chief of the 
devils ; " " He was a gluttonous man and winebibber, 
a friend of publicans and sinners." His discernment of 
purity and goodness was questioned, because He per- 
mitted the sinful woman to approach Him ; " neither did 
his brethren believe on Him." You speak of many 
having been frightened out of the straight path by the 
present calamities. How many of Christ's disciples stum- 
bled at the time of his crucifixion ! One betrayed Him, 
another denied Him, the others fled, and He was led to 
trial bound and alone. How many, think you, were offended 
when they beheld Him, who a little while ago was raising 
the dead, cleansing the lepers, expelling devils, multiply- 
ing loaves, now bound, forlorn, surrounded by coarse 
soldiers, followed by a crowd of tumultuous priests ? How 
many when He was being scourged, and they saw Him 
torn by the lash, and standing with bleeding body before 
the governor's tribunal ? How many, again, when He was 
mocked, now with a crown of thorns, now with a purple 
robe, now with a reed in his hand ? How many when He 
was smitten on the cheek, and they cried, " Prophesy, who 
is he that smote thee ? " and dragged Him hither and 

c c 



386 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXI. 

thither, consuming a whole day in jesting and revilement 
in the midst of the throng of Jewish spectators ? How 
many when He was led to the cross with the marks of 
the scourge upon his back ? How many when the soldiers 
divided his raiment among themselves P How many 
when fastened to the cross and crucified ? And, after our 
Lord's Ascension, what had been the lot of the early 
Church ? Calamity, persecution, discomfiture, weakness, 
the offence of many and the defection of many. Yet the 
truth of Jesus Christ's G ospel had not been obscured ; it 
had shone more and more brightly : God had wrought out 
the triumph of his Church.' 

The above is a much-condensed rendering of passages 
which can hardly be too much admired for the spirit as 
well as style in which they are written. The union of a 
Christian philosophy and a Christian faith, a philosophy 
which traces a principle in God's modes of operation, and 
a faith which contentedly accepts whatever happens, in 
the firm belief that, be it pleasant or painful, it is part of 
some purpose of God ; a philosophy which traces in every 
suffering of Christ's servants for the cause of truth a 
reflection of the Master's sufferings, and a faith which 
enables the sufferer not only to be cheerful himself, but 
to cheer others, form, indeed, a noble object of contem- 
plation. In a letter written to Olympias, just after his 
hardships and perils at Csesarea, he begs her to rejoice, 
as he declares he can himself rejoice, in suffering as a 
pledge of future glory. ' He never had desisted, and never 
would desist, from declaring that the only real distress to 
a man's self was sin ; all other evils were as dust and 
smcke. Spoliation of goods was freedom ; banishment was 
but a change of abode ; death was but the discharge of 
nature's debt, which all must eventually pay. 5 So much 
has been at all times, and is still, said by Christian books 
and preachers about patience and joy in affliction, that 



Ch. XXL] PRAISE OF OLYMPIAN. 387 

we may be disposed to pass over language of this kind 
s< unetimes as a hackneyed commonplace ; but it must 
be remembered that, in Chrysostoni's case, the speaker 
was an actual sufferer. His words were not the senti- 
mental utterances of a rhetorical preacher addressing an 
admiring audience, but convictions deliberately expressed 
by a persecuted sufferer, who was really living by the 
principles which he was accustomed to preach. 

The bold and lavish praise which in some of his letters 
he bestows upon the virtues of Olympias would be by a 
lady of piety in modern times distrusted as flattery, 
and distasteful as a dangerous encouragement to self- 
righteousness and pride ; but a highly wrought compli- 
mentary language which would be offensive to Western 
taste, seems the natural expression of sincere feeling, and 
is tolerated and taken for granted by Orientals ; and it 
may therefore be supposed that its effect in elating the 
mind of the recipient is faint in proportion. He begins 
his second letter b} r recommending her to divert her mind 
from those calamities and sins, for which she was no way 
responsible, by directing it to the final judgment. The 
awe with which she must contemplate that scene, in which 
she, together with all others, is individually concerned and 
interested, will expel the useless grief which mourns over 
iniquity wrought by others. But he breaks off suddenly 
from such a line of argument, as inapplicable to the case 
of so angelic a being as Olympias. ' To me, indeed, and 
those who, like me, have been plunged beneath a sea. 
of sins, such discourse is necessary, for it excites and 
alarms ; but you, who abound in goodness and who have 
already touched the very vault of Heaven, cannot even be 
pricked by such language ; wherefore, in addressing you, 
I will chant another strain and strike another string.' 
He does indeed; he invites her to count over her own 
perfections, and to dwell with complacent satisfaction on 



388 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXI. 

the heavenly rewards which are surely in store for her. 
... f It would fill a volume to relate the history of her 
patience, tried in such a variety of ways from her youth. 
She had laid such vigorous siege to her body, though 
naturally delicate and nurtured in the lap of luxury, that 
it might truly be called dead ; and these austerities 
had raised for her such a swarm of maladies as defied 
the skill of physicians, and involved her in continual 
suffering. To speak, indeed, of patience and self- 
control, in reference to her fasts and vigils, would be in- 
accurate, because those expressions implied a conquest 
over oppugnant passions. But she had no desires to 
conquer ; they were not merely subdued but extinguished. 
It was as easy and natural to her to fast as it was to 
others to eat, as natural to her to pass the night in vigil 
as to others to sleep.' With an admiring comment on her 
squalid and neglected attire he closes this singular enu- 
meration of her perfections, lest, as he expresses it, he 
should lose himself in an illimitable sea if he attempted 
to wade further ; his object being, not to make an ex- 
haustive catalogue of her virtues, but only such as might 
be sufficient to lift her out of her present state of de- 
pression. 

It is worth making such extracts as these, because they 
enable us to see how widely remote Chrysostom was from 
the mind and taste of our own times in some points, 
although in others he seems so nearly congenial. There 
is another vein of thought in this letter which is still 
more alien. ' If,' he says, ' in addition to the rewards of 
her chastity, her fasts, her vigils, her prayers, her bound- 
less hospitality, she wishes to enjoy the sight of her 
adversaries, those iniquitous and blood-stained men, under- 
going punishment for their crimes, that pleasure also shall 
be hers. Lazarus saw Dives tormented in flames. This 
you will experience. For if he, who neglected but one 



Ch. XXL] REMAKES OX THESE LETTERS. 389 

man, suffered such punishment, if it was expedient for the 
man who should offend one little one to be hanged or 
cast into the sea, what penalty will be exacted of men 
who have offended so large a part of the world, upset so 
many churches, and surpassed the ferocity of barbarians 
and robbers ? You will see them fast bound, tormented 
in flames, gnashing their teeth, overwhelmed with useless 
sorrow and vain remorse ; and they, in their turn, will 
behold you wearing a crown in the blessed mansions, 
exulting with angels, reigning with Christ ; and they will 
cry aloud and groan, repenting of the contumely which 
they fastened upon thee, supplicating, but in vain, thy 
pity and compassion.' l 

To our ears of course such language is extraordinarily 
shocking ; but, in estimating the character of Chrysostom, 
it is valuable as a warning not to judge him or any in- 
dividual by words or deeds, which belong not so much to 
him personally as to the age and circumstances in which 
he lived. Chrysostom had exercised as well as taught 
meekness, forbearance, and charity towards all men, 
enemies as well as friends ; but he lived when the minds 
of Christians had for generations been inured to scenes of 
persecution, and to such a rigorous system and barbarous 
execution of criminal law as is hardly conceivable by us. 
Fierce opposition of party against party, violence and 
bloodshed put down, if at all, by the stern hand of force, 
harden public feeling, and the individual, however amiable 
and gentle by nature, inevitably becomes infected by the 
prevailing mode of thought ; he must look at things and 
judge of things more or less from the same point of view 
as the generality of men amongst whom he lives. What 
would seem revoltingly cruel to a humane man now, 
appeared to a man who lived some hundreds of years 
ago, though perhaps equally humane by nature, and in 

1 Ep. ii. c. 10. 



390 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXI. 

private life amiable, a merely natural and just retribu- 
tion. 

The letters of Chrysostom to those bishops 1 who re- 
mained loyal to his catise, are full of asseverations that 
his affection for them cannot be diminished by separation 
or distance. He exhorts them to continue their labours 
with unabated zeal, and carefully to abstain from all 
communion with the adverse party. Small though their 
numbers were, yet their fortitude under persecution would 
so much encourage others that their conduct might be 
the salvation of the Church. Several of his letters to 
laymen in Constantinople are models of wise Christian 
counsel. He is never less than the pastor, while he is 
always the friend. He writes to one Gemellus, 2 on his 
promotion to some high magisterial office, that, c while 
others congratulated him merely on his new honours, he 
would rather dwell with thankfulness on the abundant 
opportunities Gemellus would now possess of exercising 
wisdom and gentleness on a large scale. He doubted 
not Gemellus would prove to those who were attached to 
the vain glories of this earth, that the true dignity of the 
magistrate consisted not in the robe or the girdle of office, 
or in the voice of the herald, but in reforming what was 
evil, and repairing what was falling to pieces, in punish- 
ing injustice, and preventing the right from being op- 
pressed by might. He knew the boldness of Gemellus, 
his freedom of speech, his magnanimity, his contempt 
for the things of this world, his mildness, his benevolence ; 
and he was persuaded that he would be as a haven to the 
shipwrecked, as a staff to the fallen, a tower of defence 
to those who were oppressed by tyranny.' Gemellus 
appears to have been on the point of receiving baptism, 
and perhaps on that account to have been exposed to a 
rather trying degree of persecution. Chrysostom begs 

1 c. g. Epp. lxxxviii. lxxxix. ct alise. - Ep. cxxiv. 



Ch. XXL] VISITS OF FRIENDS FEOM ANTIOCH. 391 

him not to delay baptism in the hope of receiving it from 
his hands, because the grace of the sacrament would be 
equally effectual by whatever hands administered, and 
his own joy would be none the less. 1 

So again, in his letter to Anthemius, who had recently 
been made prefect and consul. ' Nothing has been really 
added to you ; it is not the prefect or the consul whom T 
love, but my most dear and gentle Lord Anthemius, full 
of plnlosojmy and understanding. I do not felicitate 
thee because thou hast climbed to this throne, but be- 
cause thou hast gained a grander sphere wherein to 
exercise thy benevolence and wisdom.' 2 

He was less distant from Antioch than Constantinople, 
and was cheered by visits from not a few of his old friends 
in his native city, and maintained a correspondence by 
letter with many more ; but intercourse of either kind 
was much impeded by the dangers and difficulties of the 
roads, and at times by the severity of the climate. 3 The 
illegal seizure of the see of Antioch by Porphyry, and 
the harsh treatment to which the orthodox were subjected 
under his administration, caused them to turn to Chry- 
sostom, not only with sympathy as a fellow- sufferer, but 
also for guidance, comfort, and some kind of episcopal 
superintendence. Their presents to him were so nume- 
rous that he felt compelled sometimes to decline them, 
or to request permission that they might be transferred 
to the aid of the missionary work in Phoenicia. 4 

Much of his thought and correspondence was concerned 
in providing for the welfare of the Church in Persia, 
Phoenicia, and among the Goths. In his fourteenth letter 
to Olympias he begs her to use her best endeavours, to 
detach Maruthas, Bishop of Martyropolis in Persia, from 
the influence of the hostile party ; ' to lift him out of the 

1 Ep. cxxxii. 2 Ep. cxlvii. 3 Epp. cxxx. ccxxii. 

4 Epp. 1. li. lxi. et alise. 



392 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHEYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXI. 

slough' is his expression, 'for lie greatly needed his 
assistance on account of affairs in Persia; and he was 
very anxious to know what Maruthas had accomplished 
there, and whether he had received two letters recently 
sent by himself.' From this it would seem as if Maruthas, 
who had been present at the Synod of the Oak (when he 
caused the fatal injury to the foot of Cyrinus), had 
returned to Persia and again visited Constantinople, and 
that Chrysostom had hopes of working in connection with 
him for the good of the Church in Persia. 1 In the same 
epistle he expresses his sorrow at having heard, through 
some Gothic monks with whom Serapion had sought 
shelter, that the Gothic bishop Unilas, whom he had 
recently consecrated, was dead, after a short but active 
career, and that the Gothic king had written to request 
that a new bishop should be sent out. Chrysostom was 
fearful lest Atticus and his party should appoint one ; and 
he urges that everything should be done to delay the 
appointment if possible till winter came, when the season 
would prevent anyone being sent till the following spring. 
Meanwhile, Moduarius, the deacon who had brought the 
letter from the Gothic prince, was to repair secretly and 
quietly to Cucusus, and there confer with Chrysostom on 
this important matter, to avert if possible the appoint- 
ment of an improper person to so difficult a charge. 

But of course the exile's interest was pre-eminently 
centred on that city of which he could not but consider 
himself still the chief pastor, although deprived of his 
external authority over it. Banishment, imprisonment, 
and intimidation had thinned the community of the 
orthodox ; and among the remaining pastors there were 
some whose neglect of duty, the result of indolence or 

1 There seems no doubt that Maru- tricks of the magi, by which they at- 

thas was an able and active missionary tempted to prejudice the Persian king 

bishop. Socrates (vii. 8) tells strange Isdigerdes against Christianity, 
stories of his skill in exposing some 



Cu. XXL] LETTERS TO CLERGY AND OTHERS. 393 

faintheartedness, called forth severe rebukes from their 
former chief. 'He had heard with concern, and was 
vexed that the information had not come direct from the 
clergy themselves, that a priest, Salustius, had preached 
only five times between the end of June and October, and 
that he and Theophilus, another priest, rarely attended 
Divine service at all.' 1 To Theophilus he writes a letter 
of mingled sorrow and reproof, expressing a hope that 
the report may be incorrect, and begging him to refute it, 
or to amend his conduct. He reminds him of the dreadful 
punishment which was inflicted on the servant who 
buried the talent which he ought to have used, and of 
the fearful responsibility of neglecting that most beautiful 
flock, which, by the grace of God, was being strengthened 
in goodness, though now agitated by so terrible a tempest. 2 
Several of his clergy and friends are upbraided with more 
or less of affectionate expostulation for slackness in writ- 
ing to him; others are praised for their unshakable 
fortitude, patience, and zeal under affliction. He had 
learned with much concern from Domitianus, to whom 
the care of the widows and virgins of the Church was 
confided, that they were reduced to extreme indigence, 
and he entreats his friend Valentinus to sustain his 
well-known character for benevolence by relieving their 
necessities. 3 

Peanius, a man of rank and position in Constantinople, 
is thanked and praised for the unremitting zeal, yet 
tempered with moderation, with which he had resisted 
the usurping party, had stood inflexible in loyalty when 
others had fled, and had exerted himself for the welfare 
of the Church, not only in Constantinople, but also in 
Phoenicia, Palestine, and Cilicia. Chrysostom observes 
in the same letter that the members of the Church in 

1 Ep. ccx. 2 Ep. ccxii. 3 Ep. ccxvii. 



394 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXI. 

those regions had, with very few exceptions, refused to 
recognise Arsacius. 1 

Those clergy and other persons who had been im- 
prisoned on the charge of incendiarism were released in 
the beginning of September ; 2 and Chrysostom, having 
heard of their liberation, was eagerly expecting a visit 
from them when he wrote (about the end of October 
probably) to Elpidius, Bishop of Laodicea, 3 in Syria, a 
prelate venerable in years and eminent in piety, who had 
as a priest accompanied Meletius to the Council of Con- 
stantinople in a.d. 381, and was his counterpart in the 
moderation and gentleness of his disposition. Chry- 
sostom wrote to thank him for his zeal in endeavouring to 
retain the bishops, not only in his own region, but in all 
parts of the world, in loyal fidelity to the exiled Patriarch. 
Elpidius proved the sincerity of his own attachment to 
his friend by suffering deposition from his see, and im- 
prisonment for three years in his own house. Alexander, 
the successor of the usurper Porphyry in the see of 
Antioch, restored Elpidius to his see about a.d. 414 — a 
recognition of his merits which received the high appro- 
bation of Pope Innocent. 4 

Thus by letters did the exile maintain his influence over 
all varieties of people in distant and opposite quarters of 
the Empire. Exhortation and reproof, consolation and 
encouragement, or the mere expression of affectionate 
goodwill, are the main chords struck, as circumstances 
require. But there is one tone which pervades all alike — 
the unshakable Christian faith of the writer; his deep 
belief that all suffering was sent for a remedial chastening 
purpose, and that, if resignedly borne, it enhanced the 
glory of the reward reserved for those who should suffer 

1 Ep. cciv. feet of Constantinople, — Cod. Theod. 

2 As appears from an edict dated vol. ii. p. 16. 3 Ep. cxiv. 
August 29, addressed to Studius, Pre- ! Tillcmont, xi. 274. 



Cii. XXL" FAME OF THE EXILE. 395 

for righteousness 5 sake ; that sin is the only real evil, that 
expatriation and persecution, and even death, since they 
touch only the external and temporal, are to be regarded 
as mere shadows, cobwebs, and dreams ; that distance and 
material obstacles cannot impede the wings of affection 
and prayer, and that the cause of right and truth, 
although long depressed, will eventually triumph — these 
are principles, convictions firrnty rooted, which he never 
tires of repeating, and on the strength of which he lived 
cheerful and contented. 

The wide range of his influence, and the nobility of his 
Christian resignation and fortitude, maintained during his 
exile, have elicited the admiration of an historian not lavish 
of his compliments to Christian saints. ' Every tongue,' 
says Gibbon, c repeated the praises of his genius and 
virtue ; and the respectful attention of the Christian world 
was fixed on a desert spot among the mountains of 
Taurus.' 1 

' Vol. v. ch. 32. 



395 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHKYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXII. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

CHRTSOSTOM'S SUFFERINGS FROM THE WINTER COLD — DEPREDATIONS 
OF THE ISAURIANS — THE MISSION IN PHCENICIA — LETTERS TO INNO- 
CENT AND THE ITALIAN BISHOPS — CHRTSOSTOM'S ENEMIES OBTAIN 
AN ORDER FOR HIS REMOVAL TO PITTUS — HE DIES AT COMANA, A.D. 407 
—RECEPTION OF HIS RELIQUES AT CONSTANTINOPLE. A.D. 438. 

Thus trie autumn of a.d. 404 wore away. The time of the 
exile was occupied, not unpleasantly, by sending and re- 
ceiving letters, and his spirits were cheered by occasional 
visits from friends. The destitute in the neighbourhood of 
Cucusus were relieved by his alms ; the mourners com- 
forted by his affectionate sympathy ; some persons taken 
captive by the Isaurians obtained a release through his 
intercession or ransom. But the winter, always severe in 
that elevated region, set in this year with unusual rigour: 
all communication with the outer world was cut off by the 
impassable condition of the roads, and the cold told 
cruelly on the delicate constitution of the poor exile. In 
a letter to Olympias, written just on the return of spring 
a.d. 405, he draws a pitiable picture of his winter suffer- 
ings. For days together he lay in bed ; but, in spite of 
being wrapped under a very pile of blankets, with a fire 
constantly burning in his room, he could not exclude the 
cold. He suffered from constant sleeplessness, headache, 
sickness, and aversion from all food.; but, with the return 
of milder weather in spring, ' he was brought up again 
from the gates of death ; ' and he compares the softness 
of the climate at that season to the amenity of the 
air of Antioch. His spirits also were raised by the 



Cn. XXII.] RAVAGES OF THE ISAURIANS. 397 

arrival of messengers from Constantinople, bringing letters 
from Olympias and other friends. 1 

But the blessings of restoration to health and warm 
weather were counterbalanced by the misery of constant 
disturbance from the Isaurian bandits, who commenced 
their marauding campaigns as soon as the break-up of 
winter made the country practicable for their operations. 
They swarmed over the whole neighbourhood, and the 
roads which had been impassable from snow were now 
impassable from robbers, who mingled much merciless 
bloodshed with their plunder. When the full blaze also 
of summer heat came, Chrysostom found it almost as 
injurious to his health as the excessive cold ; but he kept 
up his correspondence with his friends with unabated 
assiduity. 2 

The mission in Phoenicia occupied a great deal of his at- 
tention during this year. He had written, as already related, 
from Nice to Constantius, the superintendent of the mis- 
sion, exhorting him not to allow the work to flag, owing 
to his own deposition and banishment, but rather to carry 
it on with additional energy. The efforts of the mission- 
aries had begun to provoke a rather fierce opposition on the 
part of the Pagans, and attempts were made to deprive 
them of the bare necessaries of life. But Chrysostom's 
confidence and zeal never failed for a moment. ' The mis- 
sionaries were to keep him informed of their wants, for, 
through the liberality of his friends, he could supply them 
with all that they required.' Ee was ably seconded by 
Nicolaus, a priest, who, though living at a distance, sup- 
plied the mission not only with money but with men. 
Gerontius, a presbyter whom Chryscstom had persuaded to 
abandon a solitary ascetic way of life for missionary work, 
was anxious to visit Cucusus on his way to Phoenicia ; but 
Chrysostom begs him not to delay, as the work was urgent 

1 Ep. vi. 2 Epp. cxl. cxlvi. 



398 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXII. 

and winter was approaching. He represents the greater 
advantages of the active life Gerontius was now em- 
bracing. ' There would be nothing to prevent him ob- 
serving his fasts, vigils, and other ascetic practices, as 
before, for the good of his own soul, and at the same time, 
by his missionary labours, he would reap the reward of 
those who save the souls of others.' 1 

The pagan resistance assumed more alarming propor- 
tions as time went on. A letter written to the missionaries 
seems to imply, by its tone of mingled warning and ex- 
hortation, that their courage was beginning to fail. Chry- 
sostom has recourse to his favourite comparisons of the 
pilot and the physician, who exert twofold energy as the 
violence of the storm and the disease increase. Rufinus, a 
presbyter, seems to have been sent into Phoenicia as a kind 
of special agent to restore peace, and is stimulated to his 
work by an animated letter. 6 I hear that the rage of the 
Greeks in Phoenicia has burst forth again, that several 
monks have been wounded, and some even killed. Where- 
fore I urge you the more earnestly to set out upon your 
journey with great speed, and take up your position. 5 . . . 
* If you saw a house in a blaze you would not retreat, but 
advance upon it as quickly as possible, so as to anticipate 
the flames. When all is tranquillity it is within the 
compass of almost any one to make converts, but when 
Satan is raging and the devils are in arms, then, to make 
a gallant stand and rescue those who are falling into the 
hands of the enemy, is the work of a noble, vigilant spirit, 
a work which befits an alert and lofty mind like yours, an 
apostolic achievement worthy of crowns innumerable and 
rewards which defy description.' He entreats Rufinus to 
write to him from every halting-place on his journey, and 
to keep him constantly informed of all which might take 
place after his arrival. He would send, if necessary, ten 

1 Epp. liii. liv. 



Cn. XXII.] the MISSION IX PHCENICIA. 309 

thousand times to Constantinople, in order to provide 
Rufinus with all things necessary to facilitate his journey 
and procure his ultimate success. The letter closes with 
a passage which remarkably illustrates the importance 
attached to reliques. ' With regard to the reliques of the 
holy martyrs, feel no anxiety, for I immediately despatched 
the most religious presbyter, my Lord Terentius, to my 
Lord Oneius, the most religious Bishop of Arabissus, who 
possesses many reliques indisputably genuine, which in a 
few days we will forward to you into Phoenicia.' . . . 'Use 
diligence to get the churches which are yet unroofed com- 
pleted before the winter.' l 

There is no further record of the future progress or 
ultimate issue of this mission, in which the heart of the 
exile was so deeply wrapped up. Theodoret (v. 29) merely 
says that, through the energy of Chrysostom, the extirpa- 
tion of idolatry in Phoenicia, and the destruction of pagan 
temples, were successfully carried on. But there are 
instances of the existence of Paganism mentioned in the 
middle of the fifth century ; 2 and it is only too certain that, 
under the feeble and degenerate successors of Chrysostom, 
the work would not receive any powerful impulse. Partly 
from the absence of a great central organising force like 
the Papacy, partly from the irregular and unj>ractical tem- 
perament of the Eastern nature, missionary enterprises 
have not proceeded in great number from the Eastern 
Church. The preaching of Ulphilas to the Goths, the 
missions organised by Chrysostom among the Goths and 
in Phoenicia, and the missionary labours of the Nestorians 
in Asia, are but the rare exceptions which prove the rule. 

The misery and desolation caused in the neighbourhood 
of Cucusus by the Isaurians seem to have culminated in 
the winter of a.d. 405-406 and the ensuing spring. The 
inhabitants of the villages fled from their homes at the 

1 Epp. cxxiii. cxxvi. * Photius. p. 1048. 



400 LIFE AND TBIES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXII. 

approacli of these formidable robbers, and sought a pre- 
carious refuge in woods and caves. Many perished from 
cold in these wild retreats, and many more at the hands 
of the ruffian robbers, who showed no mercy even to the 
aged, the women, and children. Chrysostom himself was, 
like others, frequently moving from place to place, now in 
this village, now in that, sometimes in the woods or 
secluded places. The only spot in which the poor harassed 
people seem to have found tolerable security was in the 
strong fortress of Arabissus, a neighbouring town. Yet 
even here they ran considerable risks. A body of 300 
Isaurians attacked and very nearly captured it in the 
middle of the night ; and the discomfort was extreme 
at all times, for the castle was crowded like a prison; 
the difficulty of obtaining food was often very great, and 
the difficulty of corresponding with friends still greater. 
Privation, anxiety, and frequent hurried movements in 
cold weather brought severe illness on Chrysostom again. 
Physicians attended him with great kindness, but the 
impossibility of procuring comforts and wholesome food 
rendered their services almost nugatory. His greatest 
grief, however, seems to have been the difficulty of main- 
taining regular correspondence with friends. The bearer 
of a letter from Olympias actually fell into the hands of 
the robbers, but was released ; in consequence of which 
Chrysostom entreats her not to send any more special 
messengers, but only to avail herself of such persons as 
were obliged by business to pass through his place of 
exile. He would not add to his present sufferings the 
distress of knowing that any life had been lost on his 
account. 1 

To the year a.d. 406 belong those letters of affectionate 
gratitude, written to the bishops of the West for their 
zeal in supporting his cause, especially those who had 

1 Epp. Ixi. lxix. cxxvii. cxxxi. 



Oh. XXIL] LETTERS TO ITALIAN BISHOPS. 401 

undertaken a long and perilous voyage to Constantinople 
to intercede in his behalf. These letters were sent by the 
hands of Evethius, the presbyter, who had for some time 
been his companion in exile. One letter may be quoted 
as an example : ' I had already been amazed at your zeal, 
on behalf of the reformation of the Church, displayed for 
a long time ; but most of all am I now astonished at 
your great earnestness, in having undertaken so long a 
journey by sea, full of labour and toil, on behalf of the 
interests of the Church. I have longed continually to 
write to you, and offer you the salutation due to your 
piety ; but since that is not possible, living as 1 now am in 
a region almost inaccessible, I take advantage of a most 
honourable and reverend presbyter to send you greeting, 
and to beseech you to persevere to the end in harmony 
with such a noble beginning. For ye know how great 
will be the reward of your patience, how vast the return 
from a benevolent God to those who labour for the com- 
mon peace, and undergo so great a conflict.' 1 

To Chromatius, Bishop of Aquileia, he writes thus : 
' The loud-voiced trumpet of your warm and genuine affec- 
tion has sounded forth even as far as to me, a clear and 
far-reaching blast indeed, extending to the very extre- 
mities of the world. Distant as we are, we know, not less 
than those present with thee, thy exceeding and burning 
love; wherefore we long extremely to enjoy a meeting 
with thee face to face. But, since the wilderness in which 
we are imprisoned precludes this, we fulfil our desire, as 
well as we can, by writing to you through our most 
honourable and reverend presbyter, expressing our great 
gratitude for the zeal which you have for so long a time 
displayed in our behalf ; and we beg you, when he returns, 
or by the hands of chance messengers who may visit this 
desolate spot, to send tidings of your health, for you 

1 Ep. clvii. 
D D 



402 LIFE AND TBIES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Cn. XXII. 

know how much pleasure it will afford us to hear fre- 
quently of the welfare of those who are so warmly dis- 
posed towards us.' l 

The letter written by Chrysostom in a.d. 406 to Inno- 
cent is full of grateful acknowledgments for all the efforts 
which he had made, and was still making, on his behalf. 
6 Though separated by so vast a length of journey, yet 
are we near your Holiness, beholding with the eye of the 
soul your courage, your genuine, inflexible firmness, and 
the constant and abiding consolation we derive from you. 
Tor the higher the waves are lifted up, the more numerous 
the rocks and reefs, the more does your untiring vigilance 
increase.' . . . c This is now the third year of my exile, 
spent in the midst of famine, pestilence, continual sieges, 
an indescribable wilderness, and the pillage of the 
Isaurians. In the midst of these distresses and dangers, 
your constant and firm affection is no ordinary solace to 
me.' 2 

There is a letter also addressed to Aurelius, 3 Bishop of 
Carthage, thanking him for bold and persevering inter- 
cession in his behalf. The Church of Africa appears to 
have adhered to what was at first the resolution of the 
Soman Church, to maintain communion with both Chry- 
sostom and Theophilus. St. Augustine has bestowed a 
high eulogium on Chrysostom. 4 An African council, in 
a.d. 407, passed a resolution to address a letter to Inno- 
cent, praying that the intercourse between the Churches 
of Rome and Alexandria might be resumed. 

The health of the exile appears to have suffered less 
than usual, in the winter of a.d. 406-7, from the effects of 
the cold. By carefully remaining in the house, and for 
the most part in bed, wrapped up in blankets in an apart- 
ment where a fire was kept constantly burning, and by 

1 Ep. civ. 3 Ep. cxlix. 

2 Vol. iii. p. 53o. 4 Aug. eont. Jul. p. 370. 



On. XXII.] CHRYSOSTOM REMOVED TO PITYUS. 403 

use of a medicine sent him by a lady, his attacks of head- 
ache and of sickness were averted or alleviated. He had 
become inured to the want of exercise, and the depriva- 
tion of the bath, and the smokiness of the room ; and 
even the natives were astonished at the firmness with 
which so feeble and ' spidery ' a frame supported the 
severity of the climate. He began to feel a persuasion 
that God would not have preserved him so miraculously 
through such various perils, if it were not his purpose 
to restore him to his former position, that he might 
accomplish some work for the Church. 1 

But the chief work which he was destined to ac- 
complish was to exhibit to the close of his life, now 
rapidly approaching, a noble spectacle of Christian forti- 
tude and patience, of one continuing to the last to hope 
in God, to put his trust in God, and still to give Him 
thanks. The malicious envy of his enemies was aug- 
mented by the admiration and affection which pursued 
their victim from all parts of Christendom, and the cor- 
respondence which was maintained with him even in the 
mountain fortress which they had selected for his prison. 
The only remedy was to remove him yet further, to a more 
remote and still more inaccessible region. They worked 
upon the Emperor and the Court, whose jealousy had 
been already excited by the interference of the West ; and, 
in the middle of June, a.d. 407, an order was obtained by 
them for the removal of the exile to Pityus, on the eastern 
coast of the Euxine, near the very frontier of the Empire, 
in the most desolate country inhabited by savage, barba- 
rous people. The two praetorian soldiers charged with 
conveying him thither were instructed to push on the 
journey with the most inexorable haste, and encouraged 
to hope for promotion should their prisoner die on the 
road. One of the two had some sparks of humanity, and 

1 Ep. v. 
i) i> 2 



404 LIFE AND TBiES OF ST. CHKYSOSTOM. [On. XXU. 

furtively showed some little kindness to the sufferer ; but 
the other followed out the cruel directions given him 
with merciless fidelity. Chrysostom had, some time ago, 
expressed his conviction that he could not survive the 
fatigue of another long and laborious journey, yet for 
three months his fragile frame endured the strain till he 
reached Comana in Pontus. A former bishop of that 
place, Basiliscus, had sufferpd martyrdom in the persecu- 
tion of Maximinus, together with Lucian of Antioch. 
Chrysostom was lodged in the precincts of the church 
erected in honour of Basiliscus, about five miles outside 
the town. Here, so runs the story, the martyred bishop 
appeared to him in the night, stood beside him, and said, 
6 Be of good cheer, for by to-morrow we shall be together.' 
A similar vision was vouchsafed to one of the presbyters 
of the church. He was bidden e to prepare a place for 
our brother John.' In the morning, Chrysostom en- 
treated his guards to allow him to stay where he was till 
eleven o'clock ; but they were inflexible, and the weary 
march was resumed. When, however, they had proceeded 
about thirty stadia, he became so ill that they were com- 
pelled to return to the martyry. Here he asked for white 
garments, and having been clothed in them, he distri- 
buted his own raiment among the clergy who were pre- 
sent. The Eucharist was administered to him, he spoke 
a few farewell words to the ecclesiastics who stood around 
him, and with the words ' Grlory be to God for all things, 
Amen,' on his lips, he expired. The promise of Basiliscus 
was literally fulfilled — he was buried in the same grave 
with the martyr, in the presence of a large concourse of 
monks and nuns. 1 

The enemies of Chrysostom thus succeeded in wreaking 

1 Pall. Dial. pp. 38, 39, who says if it took three months to convey 
that they came out of Syria, Cilicia, Chrysostom from Cucusus to Co- 
and Armenia : but how could this be mana ? 



Ch. xxu.] honoured after his death. 405 

their vengeance to the full upon the person of their 
victim — c Non missura cutem nisi plena cruoris hirudo ; ' 
but they were powerless to obliterate his memory. A 
sense of the cruelty and injustice with which he had been 
treated grew throughout Christendom, and he was more 
honoured and admired after his death than he had been 
during his life. His followers in Constantinople, under 
the appellation of Johnites, persisted in refusing to hold 
any communion with Atticus ; and in the course of ten 
years, Atticus himself was constrained, by the solicitations 
of the Court and people, by the example of other prelates, 
especially Alexander of Antioch, and by a natural desire 
to maintain communion with the Western Church, to 
admit the name of Chrysostom into the diptychs of the 
Church of Constantinople. Cyril, the nephew and suc- 
cessor of Theophilus, who inherited in too many points 
his uncle's spirit as well as his see, yielded a more tardy 
and reluctant consent to the recognition of his uncle's 
foe. 1 

But a still higher honour was yet to be paid to his 
memory by the Church from which he had been so 
violently expelled. In a.d. 434, Proclus, formerly a 
disciple of Chrysostom, was elevated to the See of Con- 
stantinople. He conceived that the only effectual means 
of doing justice to the injured saint, and reconciling the 
Johnites to the Church, would be to transport his re- 
mains to the city. The consent of the Emperor Theo- 
dosius II. was obtained. On January 27, 2 a.d. 438, the 
reliques of the banished Archbishop were brought to the 
shores of the Bosphorus. As once before in his lifetime, 
to greet him on his return from exile, so now, and in still 
greater numbers, the people, bearing torches, crowded the 
waters of the strait with their boats to welcome the 

1 Till. xi. 349. 

2 This is his day in the Calendar of the Eastern and Western Church. 



406 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXn. 

return of all which, remained of their beloved and much- 
wronged spiritual father. The young Emperor, stooping 
down, laid his face on the reliquary, and implored for- 
giveness of the injuries which his parents had inflicted 
on the saint whose ashes it contained. That reliquary 
was then deposited near the altar of the Church of the 
Apostles. 1 It is the sad story, so often repeated in his- 
tory, of goodness and greatness, unrecognised, slighted, 
injured, cut short in a career of usefulness by one gene- 
ration, abundantly, but too late, acknowledged in the next ; 
when posterity, paying to the memory and the tomb the 
honours which should have been bestowed on the living 
man, can only utter the remorseful prayer — 

' His saltern accunmlem donis, et fungar inani 
Munere . . . .' 

1 The Roman martyrology states Rome, but the statement is not sup- 
that the remains of the saint were ported by any trustworthy historical 
afterwards translated to St. Peter's, evidence. — Till. xi. 352. 



•107 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

SURVEY OF CHRYSOSTOM's THEOLOGICAL TEACHING — PRACTICAL TONE 
OF HIS WORKS — REASON OF THIS — DOCTRINE OF MAN'S NATURE — 
ORIGINAL SIN — GRACE — FREE-WILL — HOW FAR CHRYSOSTOM PELA- 
GIAN—LANGUAGE ON THE TRINITY — ATONEMENT — JUSTIFICATION — 
THE TWO SACRAMENTS — NO TRACE OF CONFESSION, PURGATORY, OR 
MARIOLATRY — RELATIONS TOWARDS THE POPE — LITURGY OF CHRY- 
SOSTOM — HIS CHARACTER AS A COMMENTATOR — VIEWS ON INSPI- 
RATION — HIS PREACHING — PERSONAL APPEARANCE — REFERENCES TO 
GREEK CLASSICAL AUTHORS — COMPARISON WITH ST. AUGUSTINE. 

The main characteristics of Chrysostom as a theologian 
and interpreter of Scripture, as well as a pastor and 
preacher, have, it is hoped, been already indicated in the 
course of the preceding narrative ; but it may be desir- 
able to supplement, by a fuller and more methodical 
survey, notices which were necessarily sometimes brief and 
incidental in the biographical chapters. 1 

Some evidence, therefore, of his theological teaching 
and method of interpretation will first of all be collected 
from his writings, and arranged under different heads. 
Two difficulties in the way of executing this task faith- 
fully should be borne in mind : first, the voluminous 
bulk of Chrysostom's works (as Suidas observed, that it 
belonged to God rather than man to know them all), 
which renders a successful search, for the selection of 
what are really the most telling passages in illustration 
of each point, far from easy ; secondly, that Chrysostom, 
being a preacher rather than a writer, was of course liable 

1 I must acknowledge my obliga- entitled, ' Chrysostomus in seinem 

tions in the composition of this chap- Verhaltniss zur Antiochenischen 

ter to the very useful and instructive Schule.' — Gutha, 1869. 
work of Dr. Th. Foerster, Berlin, 



408 LIFE AJSTD IDLES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXHL 

to slip into inexact or exaggerated language, under the 
influence of excitement, or a desire to make an impression 
on the feelings of his hearers. An attentive perusal, 
however, of his writings leads the reader to the conclusion 
that he was very seldom carried away by the impulse of 
the moment into merely vague or rhetorical expressions, 
and that he was especially preserved from this failing by 
his habit of combining the expository with the practical 
and hortatory line of preaching. His discourses are care- 
ful commentaries as well as practical addresses. "Week 
after week it was his custom to go through some book of 
Holy Scripture, verse by verse, clause by clause, almost 
word by word ; endeavouring with all diligence and 
patience to ascertain the exact meaning of the passage 
before him, to place it clearly before his audience, and 
to base his practical exhortation upon it. 

The remark has been so often repeated, as to have 
become almost a truism, that the theology of the East 
is distinguished from the theology of the West by its 
more speculative, metaphysical character. It deals more 
especially with the most profound and abstract mysteries — 
the being and nature of the Godhead, of angels, of the 
whole spiritual realm. It might, therefore, occasion some 
surprise to find the homilies of Chrysostom marked by 
such an eminently practical tone. But the apparent con- 
tradiction is easily explained. It is precisely because 
Greek philosophy and theology were chiefly concerned 
with the most abstract questions, that the Greek preacher, 
speaking on matters not abstract, but practical, relating 
to moral conduct, is especially free in his language from 
philosophical or technical terms. On the other hand, in 
the Western Church exactly the 'reverse occurs. The 
best intellectual powers of the Roman having been mainly 
exercised on jurisprudence, the mind of Roman theologians 
naturally turned most powerfully towards practical ques- 



Cn. xxiil; greek and western theology. 409 

tions wliicli had most affinity to that science with which 
they were chiefly conversant — snch as the relation of man 
to God, the nature of sin, the means of discharging the 
debt owed by man, the problem of the free-will of man, 
and providence of God. Western theology is coloured 
by the language of Roman law, as Eastern theology is 
coloured by the language of Greek philosophy. c Merit,' 
' satisfaction,' ' decrees,' ' forensic justification,' ( imputed 
righteousness,' are terms which do not occur in the 
writings of the Greek theologian, because they are the 
expressions of ideas in which he felt no interest. They 
are the offspring of the Roman mind, in which legal ideas 
were dominant. Hence the Western theologian is most 
technical and scientific in the region of practical questions ; 
the Greek, on the other hand, is more entirety free from the 
influence of philosophy in that region than in any other. 

In accordance with this distinction, we find that Chry- 
sostom, in treating of those practical questions with which, 
as a preacher and pastor, he was mainly concerned — the 
nature and the work of Jesus Christ, providence, grace, 
the nature of man, sin, faith, repentance, good works, 
and the like — casts his thoughts into the most free, natural, 
untechnical, and therefore forcible language possible. 

To consider first of all his exposition of man's nature. 
The majority of the Oriental fathers made a triple division, 
into body, soul, and spirit — the soul (^rvxv) being equi- 
valent to the animal life, the spirit {izvsvfia or ^\rvxv ^oyiKr/) 
to the reason. Chrysostom makes a twofold division only, 
into body and soul, and reserves the word spirit to 
designate the Holy Spirit. 1 Man, when first created, came 
like a pure golden statue fresh out of the artist's hands, 
destined, if he had not fallen, to enjoy a yet higher and 
nobler dignity than he then possessed. 2 His being made 

1 In Rom. Hom. xiii. 2. 1 Cor. Horn. xiii. 3. In Phil. vii. 5. 
2 Hom. de Stat. si. 2. 



41 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXin. 

4 in the image of God ' Chrysostom interprets to signify 
that dominance over the lower animals which God Himself 
exercises over the whole creation, and the peculiar supe- 
riority of man's nature to theirs consists in his reasoning 
power, as well as in his endowment with the gift of 
immortality. 1 Man fell through his own weakness and 
indolent negligence (paOvula), and then became deprived 
of that immortality and divine wisdom with which he had 
been previously gifted ; but his nature was not essentially 
changed, it was only weakened. 2 Evil is not an integral 
part of man ; it is not an inherent substantial force {hvvajjuis 
svvTToaTaros) : 3 it is the moral purpose {irpoalpzcris) which 
is perverted when men sin. If evil was a part of our 
nature, it would be no more reprehensible than natural 
appetites and affections. If man's will was not unfettered, 
there would be no merit in goodness and no blame in evil. 
There is no constraint either to holiness or to sin ; neither 
does God compel to the one, nor do the fleshly appetites 
compel to the other. 4 The body was not, as the Manich- 
seans erroneously maintained, the seat of sin ; it was the 
creation of God equally with the soul : the whole burden, 
therefore, of responsibility in sin must be thrown on the 
6 moral purpose.' Here was the root of all evil ; the con- 
ception of necessity and immutability is bound up with 
the idea of nature. We do not try to alter that which is 
by nature (<j)vast) : sin therefore is not by nature, because 
by means of education, laws, and punishments we do seek 
to alter that. 5 Sin is through the moral purpose which 
is susceptible of change, and till the moral purpose has 
come into activity sin cannot properly be said to exist : 

1 In Gfenes. Horn. xxi. 2. ginal Sin,' ch. vi. : ' A man is not 

2 ILid. xvi. and xvii. naturally sinful as he is naturally 

3 In Rom. Horn. xii. fi. heavy, or upright, naturally apt to 

4 Iu Genes. Horn. xx. 3. In 1 Cor. weep and laugh; for these he is 
Hum. ii. 2. In Matt. Horn. lix. 1, 2. always and unavoidably.' Comp. 

3 Comp. Jeremy Taylor, ' On Ori- also Aristot. Eth. ii. c. 1. 



Ch. XXIII] views on nature of man. 411 

infants, therefore, and very young children, are free from 
sin. 1 Our first parents fell through moral negligence 
(pa6vfj,i'a) ; and this is the principal cause of sin now. They 
marked out a path which has been trodden ever since ; 
they yielded to appetite, and the force of the will has 
been weakened thereby in all their posterity, who have 
become subject to the punishment of death; so that, 
though sin is not a part of man's nature, yet his nature 
is readily inclined to evil (oguppcirr)? irpbs kolkLclv) : but this 
tendency will be controlled by the moral purpose if that 
is in a healthy condition. 2 

Chrysostom would thus readily allow the expressions 
hereditary tendency to sin, hereditary liability to the 
punishment of death, but he shrinks from the expression 
' hereditary sin.' His anxiety to insist on the complete 
freedom of the human will was very natural in the earnest 
Christian preacher of holiness, who lived in an age when 
men were frequently encountered who, in the midst of 
wickedness, complained that they were abandoned to the 
dominion of devils or to the irresistible course of fate. 
They transferred all guilt from themselves to the powers 
of evil, all responsibility to the Creator Himself, who had 
withdrawn from them, as they maintained, the protection of 
his good providence. To counteract the disastrous effects 
of such philosophy which surrendered the will to the 
current of the passions, like an unballasted ship cast 
adrift before the storm, it was indeed necessary to main- 
tain very resolutely and boldly the essential freedom of 
the will, to insist on man's moral responsibility, and the 
duty of vigilant, strenuous exertion. Chrysostom fre- 
quently exposes the absurdity as well as the moral evil of 
a doctrine of necessity. If human actions are necessary 
and preordained results of circumstances, then teaching 

1 In Matt. Horn, xxviii. 3, and lviii. 3. 

2 In Heb. Horn. xii. 2 and 3. 



412 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXHL 

and government become mere pieces of acting, destitute 
of any practical influence ; they are also unjust, since you 
have no right to punish a person who has acted under 
compulsion. Such a theory ought, also, logically to para- 
lyse human industry. If a plentiful harvest is predeter- 
mined by the decrees of fate, you may spare yourself the 
trouble of ploughing, sowing, and other laborious opera- 
tions ; or, if Clotho has turned her distaff in the other 
direction, all your exertions will fail to produce an abun- 
dant crop. Such a doctrine is repugnant to our natural 
sense, and contradicts our own consciousness and inward 
experience. We feel that we are free, and all human 
action proceeds on the principle of supposing man to be 
free. We teach and we punish. The plea of necessity 
would be rejected in a court of law as an impudent and 
futile excuse for crime. Such a theory is utterly at 
variance also with God's mode of addressing man, which 
always implies freedom of volition ; as, for instance, c If 
ye will hearken unto me, ye shall eat the fat of the land ; 
but if ye will not hearken, the sword shall devour you.' 1 

Profoundly convinced, therefore, of a universal tendency 
to sin on the one hand, but of an essential freedom of the 
will on the other, Chrysostom sounds alternately the 
note of warning and of encouragement — warning against 
that weakness, indolence, languor of the moral purpose 
which occasions a fall ; encouragement to the full use of 
those powers with which all men are gifted, and to avoid 
that despondency which will prevent a man from rising 
again when he has fallen. St. Paul repented, and, not 
despairing, became equal to angels ; Judas repenting, but 
despairing, was hurried into self-inflicted death. Despair 
was the devil's most powerful instrument for working the 
destruction of man. 2 Chrysostom therefore earnestly com- 

1 De Fato, Horn, iii.-vi. Corap. Jer. 2 DoPenit. Horn. i. 2 ; et ad Theod. 

Taylor, unura npcessar. eh. 6. see. 5. Japsum. 



Oh. XXIIL] REMARKS ON THE POWER OF SIN. 413 

bated any view of Christian life which daunted and dis- 
couraged man's efforts, by winding them too high, or plac- 
ing before them an unattainable standard. Men sometimes 
said we cannot be like St. Peter and St. Paul, because we 
are not gifted with their miraculous power. But he re- 
plies, you may emulate their Christian graces : these are 
within the reach of all, and these are, by our Lord's own 
declaration, the most important. ' By this shall all men 
know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to 
another;' the moral works of the Apostles, works of love, 
mercy, and faith, were far more instrumental in the con- 
version of the world than their merely miraculous powers. 1 
Urgently, however, as Chrysostom, in his desire to 
stimulate exertion and strengthen the moral life, insists 
on the absolute freedom of the will, he maintains no less 
clearly the insufficiency of man's nature to accomplish 
good without the Divine assistance. No one has described 
in more forcible language the powerful hold of sin upon 
human nature. Sin is like a terrible pit, containing 
fierce monsters, and full of darkness. 2 It is more terrible 
than a demon, 3 it is a great demon ; 4 it is like fire ; when 
once it has got a hold on the thoughts of the heart, if it 
is not quenched it spreads farther and farther, and be- 
comes increasingly difficult to subdue ; 5 it is a heavy 
burden, more oppressive than lead. 6 Christ saw us lying 
cast away upon the ground, perishing under the tyranny 
of sin, and He took compassion on us. 7 In the infant 
weakness and liability to sin are inherent, though not 
sin itself. The moral nature of the infant is like a plant, 
which will grow healthily by a process of natural develop- 
ment, unless exposed to injurious influences ; but it re- 
quires the protection of grace, ' therefore we baptise 

1 In Inscrip. Act. ii. 6. 5 De Sanct. Babyla, vol. ii. 

2 In Psalm cxlii. 5. 6 In Johan. vol. viii. p. 482. 

3 In Act. Horn. xli. 4. 7 In Hebr. Horn. v. i. 

4 In Matt, xxxii. 



i 



414 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CBERYSOSTOM. [Cn. XXIH. 

infants, to impart holiness and goodness as well as to 
establish a relationship with God.' This passage is 
quoted by St. Augustine in his earnest vindication of 
Chrysostoni from Pelagianism. 1 But the passages on which 
Augustine mainly depends, to prove Chrysostom's ad- 
herence to the tenet of original sin, are in his exposition 
of Romans v. 12-14 : — ' Death reigned from Adam to 
Moses. How reigned ? In likeness of the transgression 
of Adam, who is a figure of One to come. How a figure ? 
Because, as he became a cause of death to those who were 
born from him, although they had not eaten of the tree, 
even so Christ has become to his posterity the procurer 
of righteousness, though they have not done righteousness, 
which He has bestowed upon us all through his cross.' 
Augustine quotes also his observation on Christ's tears 
over the grave of Lazarus : — e He wept to think that men, 
who were capable of immortality, had been made mortal 
by the devil ; ' and his remarks on Genesis i. 28, about 
the subjection of the lower animals to man, e that man's 
present dread of wild beasts was entirely owing to the 
fall, and had not existed previous to that : it was inherited 
by all Adam's posterity, because they inherited his degra- 
dation through the fall.' All these passages, however, do 
not amount to more than the doctrine of a universally 
inherited tendency to sin, and therefore liability to its 
punishment, death. In his interpretation of the passage, 
4 the free gift is of many offences unto justification,' this 
last word is plainly taken by him in the sense of making 
man righteous, not accounting him as such. 2 

His conception of the relation between the will and 
power of God on the one hand, and man's freedom on the 
other, appears to be this : — All men, without exception, 
are through Christ called to salvation; predestination 

1 Contra Julianurn,bk. i. ed. Bencd. passage in Chrysostom's works, 
p. 630; but I have failed to find the - In Rom. Horn. x. 2. 



Ch. xxtil; gods wilt, not irresistible. 415 

means no more than God's original design, conceived prior 
to the Fall, of bringing all men to salvation. So, after the 
Fall, his redemptive plan or purpose embraces all men; 
but, on the other hand, it constrains no one. According 
to his absolute will all men are to be saved; but the 
accomplishment of his purpose is limited by the freedom 
of choice which He has Himself bestowed on man, where- 
by man may either accept the proffered favour and be 
eternally blessed, or reject it and be eternally condemned. 
God's election of those who are called is not compulsory, 
but persuasive; 1 hence, many of those who have been 
called perish through their rejection of grace : they, and 
not God, are the authors of their own condemnation. 
God knows beforehand what each man will be, good or 
bad ; but He does not constrain him to be one or the 
other. 2 The illustration of the potter in Eomans ix. 20, 
must not be pressed too closely ; St. Paul's object simply 
is to enforce the duty of unconditional obedience. A 
vessel of wrath is one who obdurately resists God's grace ; 
he was never intended by God to be a vessel of wrath. 
'The vessels of mercy are said to have been prepared 
afore by God unto glory,' but the vessels of wrath to be 
fitted (not by God — He is not mentioned — but by sin) unto 
destruction. 3 So again, he acutely observes that, in the 
account of the final judgment (St. Matt, xxv.), the destiny 
of the good only is referred to God. ' Come, ye blessed of 
my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you;' but, 
' Depart, ye cursed ' (not ' of my Father ') , c into everlast- 
ing fire prepared ' (not for you, but) £ for the devil and 
his angels. 5 

On St. John vi. 44, he remarks, it is perfectly true that 
only they who are drawn and taught by the Father can 

1 TrporpeKTucr] oh ftiaaruc}), in John, Horn. i. 2. In 1 Cor. Horn. ii. 2. 
Horn, xlvii. 4 ; et in Matt. H„ lxxx. 3. s In Rom. Horn. xvi. c. 8, 9. 

- In 1 Cor. Horn. vii. 2. In Eph.es. 



416 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXIII. 

come to Christ ; but away with the paltry pretence that 
those who are not thus drawn and taught are emancipated 
from blame ; for this very thing, the being led and in- 
structed, depends on their own moral choice. Two factors, 
therefore, Divine grace which presents, and human will 
which appropriates, are co-efficients in the work of man's 
salvation ; God's love and man's faith must work hand in 
hand. On the whole, Chrysostom seems to assign the 
initiatory movement to man's will. God provides oppor- 
tunities, encourages by promises, arouses by calls ; and 
the moment these are responded to, the moment man 
begins to will and to do what is right, he is abundantty 
assisted by grace. But Chrysostom recognises nothing 
approaching the doctrine of final perseverance. St. Paul 
might have relapsed, Judas might have been saved (De 
Laud. Ap. Pauli, Horn. ii. 4). In his commentary on 
Phil. ii. 12-13, 'It is God which worketh in us both to 
will and to do of his good pleasure/ the spontaneity of 
man's will is carefully maintained. It may be said, if 
God works the will in us, why does the Apostle exhort 
us to work? for if God wrought the wish, it is vain to 
speak of obedience; the whole work is God's from the 
beginning. No ! Chrysostom says, what St. Paul means 
is, that if your will works, God will augment your will, 
and quicken it into activity and zeal. Hast thou given 
alms ? you are the more prompted to give ; hast thou 
abstained from giving ? negligence will increase upon you. 
The histories of Abraham, Job, Elijah, St. Paul, and 
other saints, are frequently cited to prove his central 
principle, that God in the moral and spiritual sense helps 
those only who help themselves. ' When He, who knows 
the secrets of our hearts, sees us eagerly prepare for the 
contest of virtue, He instantly supplies us with his 
assistance, lightening our labours, and strengthening the 
weakness of our nature. In the Olympian contests the 



Cn. XXIIL] PASSAGES ABOUT DIVINE GRACE. 417 

trainer stands by as a sj^ectator merely, awaiting the 
issue, and unable to contribute anything to the efforts of 
the contender; whereas our Master accompanies us, ex- 
tends his hand to us, all but subdues our antagonist, 
arranges everything to enable us to prevail, that He may 
place the amaranthine wreath upon our brows.' 1 God 
does not anticipate (<j>6dvsi) man's own volitions {j3ov\7]a-sis) 9 
but, when these are once bent in the right direction, God's 
grace powerfully promotes them ; and without this divine 
co-operation holiness is unattainable. 2 But as, according 
to Chrysostom's conceptions, the first movement towards 
good moral practice comes from the man himself, he 
often speaks of a man's salvation depending on his own 
moral choice. He is not, therefore, in harmony with the 
mind of our Church as expressed in the Article, that ' we 
have no power to do good works, pleasant and acceptable 
to God, without the grace of God preventing us, that we 
may have a good will;' but his language thoroughly 
concurs with the subsequent clause, ' and working with 
us when we have that good will.' In the technical 
language of theology, he recognises assisting, but not 
prevenient, grace. 

It has been well remarked by Mr. Alexander Knox 
(' Remains,' vol. iii. 79), that ' the advocates for efficient 
grace have been too generally antiperfectionists, and the 
perfectionists, on the other hand, too little aware that we 
are not sufficient so much as to think anything as of our- 
selves, but that it is God which worketh in us both to will 
and to do of his good pleasure.' The perfect conception 
of the true Christian standard of character could only be 
found, he thought, in a union of the systems of St. Chry- 
sostom and St. Augustine. It must not be imagined, 
however, that Chrysostom regarded Divine grace as 
accessory or subsidiary merely to man's own will and 

1 In Genes. Horn, xlii c. 1. 2 In Jolian. Horn, xviii. 3. 

E E 



418 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXIE. 

purpose. He fails not to represent it as indispensable to 
every human soul, however powerfully inclined of itself to 
good. The human will, weakened and depraved by evil, 
is not for a moment to rank as co-ordinate in its action 
with the work of the Holy Spirit : the real efficient force 
in the work of sanctification is the Holy Spirit. The 
beginnings, indeed (dp^al), are our own, and we must 
contribute what we can, small and cheap though it be, 
because, unless we do our part, we shall not obtain the 
Divine assistance ; but though the initiatory step is ours, 
the accomplishment of the work is altogether God's, and, 
since the major part is his, we commonly say that the 
whole is his. 1 

He invariably speaks of the Old Dispensation as a period 
when Divine grace was given in less measure than under 
the Gospel, because then sin had not been blotted out, 
nor death vanquished. The achievements of holy men like 
Abraham and Job in this period were therefore deserving 
of peculiar praise, and their faults, on the other hand, 
were entitled to more indulgent judgment, because they 
laboured under disadvantages. When the Lamb which 
taketh away the sins of the world had been slain, and the 
reconciliation between man and God had been effected, 
then spiritual gifts of a higher order were imparted, as 
a sign and a pledge that the old hostility had ceased. 2 

Turning now to theology, strictly so called, to the being 
and nature of the Godhead, we find comparatively little 
said by Chrysostom, except incidentally, on a subject more 
congenial to the theologian and student than to the 
earnest, practical preacher. In opposition to the mate- 
rialising doctrine of the Arians, who affected to compre- 
hend the Divine Nature, he strenuously maintained, as we 
have seen, 3 its inscrutability, and denounced any curious 
investigation of it as at once foolish and profane. God 

1 In Heb. Horn. xii. c. 3. 2 De Mac. i. 3. 3 Ch. VIII. 



I 



CH.XXni.] AXD THE HOLY TRINITY. 419 

has condescended to appear to ns in a form which, is in- 
telligible, and it is presumption to attempt to penetrate 
beyond the limits which He has placed to a knowledge of 
Himself. Chrysostoin takes the dogma of the one sub- 
stance (ofioovaia), established at Nice, as the basis of his 
position against the Arians, and seeks to prove it, not by 
speculative argument, after the manner of the Alexandrian 
school, but by reference to Holy Scripture. He uses the 
word ' substance ' (ova (a) to designate the essential nature, 
and 'person' {y-n-oaraa is) , the personality of the Godhead, 
and points out that words which relate to the ovaca, as 
Lord and God, are applied to all the Persons ; whereas the 
other terms — Father, Son, Holy Spirit — indicating distinc- 
tion of personality, are each applied to one Person only in 
the Godhead. Yet the Persons are not related to the 
substance as parts to the whole : God the Son is to God 
the Father as a beam of the sun, inseparable from Him, 
identical with Him in substance, yet retaining his own 
personality. 1 He is equally careful to guard the divinity 
of Christ against the rationalising spirit of the school of 
Paul of Samosata, and the distinctness of his personality 
as against the Sabellians. St. Paul, he observes, does 
not dwell too much upon the abasement of Christ, lest 
Paul of Samosata should take advantage ; neither does 
he dwell exclusively upon the exaltation, lest Sabellius 
should spring upon him. 2 

The equal divinity and distinct personality of the Holy 
Ghost are no less clearly and forcibly demonstrated by 
a collection and comparison of passages. St. Paul, for 
instance, in 1 Cor. xii. 6, speaks of God as ' working all 
in all ; ' in verse 11 of the same chapter, he uses the same 
language of the Holy Spirit. Into any metaphysical, 
abstract discussion of the nature of the Godhead Chry- 
sostom does not enter. He simply endeavours to guard 

1 In John, Horn. iii. 2. 2 In Heb. Horn. ii. c. 2. 

e e 2 



420 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXin. 

tlie faith of the Church, by a careful exposition of Holy 
Scripture, on which that faith was based, and by an 
exposure of the one-sided, or perverted, interpretations on 
which the current forms of heresy depended. 

The union of the two natures in the person of our 
blessed Lord was, as is well known, a subject of constant 
speculation in the first five centuries, and of prolific error. 
Here, again, the good sense of Chrysostom, united to his 
careful study of Holy Scripture, enabled him to hold the 
balance between two divergent methods — one which at- 
tended too exclusively to the humanitarian point of view, 
the other which brought out the divinity, but at the 
expense of the manhood. He earnestly maintains the 
veritable assumption of humanity by the Word. Our 
nature could not have been elevated to the divine if the 
Saviour had not really partaken of it ; neither could He 
have brought help to our race if He had appeared in the 
unveiled glory of his Godhead, for sun and moon, earth 
and sea, and even man himself, would have perished at 
the brightness of his presence. Therefore He veiled his 
Godhead in flesh, and came not as the Lord in outward 
semblance, but in lowliness and abasement. 1 And this 
very condescension enhanced his dignity and extended 
his dominion : before the Incarnation He was adored by 
angels only, but afterwards by the whole race of redeemed 
man. 2 He assumed our nature, even in its liability to 
death, but not as contaminated by sin. 3 There were in 
Him three elements — body and soul making up the human 
nature, and the Logos or Word making up the divine. 
These two natures were united but not fused. 6 We, 
indeed, are body and soul, but He is God and soul and 
body ; remaining what He was, He took that which He 
was not, and having become flesh, He remained God, being 
the Word. The one He became, He assumed ; the other 

1 In Psal. li. expos. 2 In Heb. Horn. iv. 2, 3. 3 In Rom. Horn. xiii. 5. 



Oh. xxiil] MANHOOD AND GODHEAD IN CHRIST. 421 

He was. Let us not then confound, neither let us divide ; 
one God, one Christ the Son of God ; and when I say one, 
I speak of union, not fusion' (s.coaiv Xs^yco ou ov-yx uai ' v )* V 
Jesus Christ was subject to death, susceptible of pain and 
all those emotions and sensations which belong to the 
human body, otherwise his would not have been a real 
body, but the weakness pertaining to human nature was 
entirely overruled by the constant operation of the Logos. 
If He is said to have been lowered or exalted, this was 
only as man, since the Godhead was incapable of either, 
being absolutely perfect. When the Holy Ghost is said 
to have descended upon Him at his baptism, this must be 
considered to refer to his human nature only ; the man- 
hood, not the Godhead, is anointed. Or when we read that 
He walked not in Judsea, because the Jews sought to kill 
Him, and then, just afterwards, that He passed through the 
midst of his enemies unscathed, we have a direct mani- 
festation, in close juxtaposition, of the Godhead and the 
manhood. 2 

In speaking of the redemptive work of our blessed 
Lord, Chrysostom's language is too rapturously eloquent 
to be very precise. There are in him several traces of the 
idea which began with Iremeus, and was developed by 
Origen, that the devil through the Fall acquired an 
actual right over man, and that a kind of pious fraud was 
practised upon him to deprive him of this right through 
the Incarnation and death of Jesus. By the noiseless, 
unostentatious manner in which our Saviour assumed 
humanity, veiling his Godhead under it, He, as it were, 
stole unawares upon the devil, who was not fully conscious 
of the majesty and might of his adversary. The devil 
assaulted Christ as if Christ had been merely man, and he 
was disappointed in his expectation. He was vanquished 

1 In Phil. Horn. vii. c. 3. 

2 In Heb. Horn, iii., Horn. iv. c. iii. In Philog. Beat. In John, Horn. 
xlviii. c. i. 



422 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXHI. 

by his own weapons, his tyranny was destroyed by means 
of those very things which were his strength ; the curse 
of sin and of death were his most trusted pieces : Christ 
submitted Himself to be bruised by them, and yet crushed 
them by his submission. 1 

On the other hand, we find also in Chrysostom the 
customary conception of a debt discharged, a ransom 
paid, a sacrifice offered once for all. c Adam sinned and 
died ; Christ sinned not and yet died. Wherefore ? that 
he who sinned and died might be able, through Him who 
died but sinned not, to throw off the grasp of death. This 
is what takes place also in money transactions. Often 
some one who is a debtor, not being able to pay, is de- 
tained in bonds ; another, who owes nothing but is able 
to lay down the sum, pays it and releases the responsible 
person. Thus has it been in the case of man. Man was 
the debtor, was detained by the devil, and could not pay ; 
Christ owed nothing, nor was He holden by the devil, but 
He was able to pay the debt. He came and He paid down 
death on behalf of him who was detained in bondage.' 2 

From this point of view the person to whom the debt 
is due and is discharged is the devil ; from another, the 
satisfaction is regarded as due to God, owing to the viola- 
tion of man's obedience, and is paid to Him through the 
sacrifice of a sinless life. ' It was right that all men 
should fulfil the righteousness of God ; but, since no one 
did this, Christ came and completely fulfilled it.' 3 He 
was Himself both the sacrificer and the victim ; the cross 
being the altar. He suffered outside the city that the 
prophecy, c He was numbered with the transgressors,' 
might be fulfilled, and also that the universality of the 
sacrifice might be proclaimed. 4 Chrysostom is not careful 

1 In Matt. Horn. iii. ; Expos, in Ps. li.; 3 De Bapt. Christi, c. 3. 
in 1 Cor. Horn. xxiv. 4. 4 De Ccemet. et Cruce, i. 

2 De Resur. J. Chr. c. 3. 



Cu. XXIIL] VIEWS ON JUSTIFICATION. 423 

to distinguish between the alienation of man from God, 
and of God from man through the Fall. He represents the 
liostility as in some sort existing on both sides. Christ 
did the work of a mediator by interposing Himself be- 
tween the two parties, and reconciling each to the other. 
The references to such a fundamental verity are of course 
numerous, often full of beauty of expression and tender- 
ness of feeling, and glowing earnestness. What he spe- 
cially delights to dwell upon, as might be expected from 
his warm, affectionate disposition, is the exceeding love 
of Christ to man, and the hearty return which gratitude 
for such a benefit ought to draw forth from us. Like 
St. Paul, he often will break forth, in the midst of some 
argument or practical address, into a burst of rapturous 
and adoring praise. ' What reward shall I give unto the 
Lord for all the benefits which He hath done unto me ? 
Who shall express the noble acts of the Lord, or show forth 
all his praise ? He abased Himself that He might exalt 
thee; He died to make thee immortal; He became a 
curse that thou mightest obtain a blessing.' . . . . ' When 
the world lay in darkness, the light of the Cross was held 
up like a torch shining in a dark place, and the light at 
the top of it was the Sun of Righteousness Himself.' l 

Chrysostom's doctrine of justification is naturally coloured 
by his ethics. Maintaining, as he did, that the corruption 
of man's nature consisted in a weakness of the moral 
purpose, a crooked tendency of the will, rather than in 
any inherent indelible stain in that nature itself, his 
exhortations are directed rather to inculcate energetic 
action, a gradual process of improvement of the will with 
the Divine help, than that entire dependence through 
faith on the mercy of God which springs out of a deep 
conviction of the sinner's own insufficiency. The logical 

1 De Ccemet. et Grace, 3. See also in Ephes. Hom.xx. ; and esp. In Ascens. 
J. Chr. c. 2. 



424 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXHI. 

tendency of the Augustinian view of the intense and 
radical depravity of man's nature is to induce a total 
distrustfulness of the efficacy of personal effort, a total 
disavowoient of all personal merit. Hence justification 
comes to be regarded as purely an act of acquittal on 
God's part, a boon which the desjDairing sinner by an 
act of faith thankfully accepts. Such is not the position 
of Chrysostom, or of those who, like the Cambridge divines 
of the seventeenth century, have trodden in his footsteps. 
With him the condition of a pardoned sinner consists 
rather in that renovation of the spiritual and moral life, 
which is the result of long and laborious effort, aided of 
course b) T Divine grace, a succession of moral acts even- 
tually producing c a new creature.' Faith is not so much 
regarded merely as the instrument or hand held out by 
which God's gift is appropriated, as the first in a row of 
good works, a fruitful source of all good action. c Abra- 
ham,' he says, ' believed God, and it was counted to him 
for righteousness. Why? to prove that belief itself, in 
the first instance, and obedience to the call of God, come 
from our own good judgment (evyvoyfioavvr)) ; but as soon 
as the foundation of faith is laid, we require the alliance 
of the Holy Spirit, that it may remain constantly un- 
shakable and inflexible.' 1 .... f Faith is the mother of 
all good, the sure staff of man's tottering footsteps, the 
anchor of his tempest-tossed soul, without which he would 
be like a ship cast adrift on the sea to the mercy of winds 
and waves.' 2 .... c It is more stable and secure than 
reason, for it carries its own proof with it; the con- 
clusions of reason may be diverted by counter-arguments, 
but faith stands above argument, and is not distracted by 
it.' 3 

He does not, indeed, shrink from a bold declaration of 

1 De Verb. Apost. vol. iii. p. 276. 2 In John. Horn, xxxiii. c. 1. 

:f In Eoui. Horn. viii. e. 5. 



Cu. XXIIL] FAITH AND GOOD WORKS. 425 

the value of good works, but he is far from teaching men 
to depend on them as efficient causes of salvation. They 
are to be stored up as a kind of viaticum for our journey 
to the other world. 'As those who are in a foreign 
country, when they wish to return to their own land, take 
pains, a long time beforehand, to collect means sufficient 
for their journey, so surely ought we, who are but strangers 
and settlers on this earth, to lay up a store of provisions 
through spiritual virtue, that when our Master shall com- 
mand our return into our native country, we may be 
prepared and may carry part of our store with us, having 
sent the other in advance.' * On the other hand, he con- 
stantly insists that it is the favour and mercy of God 
alone which, in the end, bestows salvation on us. Faith 
and good works are necessary conditions, but not efficient 
causes of salvation. God has graciously willed that they 
who have faith and good works shall be saved: let no 
man, therefore, boast. We could not do good works 
without God's assisting grace, nor could they in the end 
and at the best save us if it were not his merciful and 
gracious will. 2 Therefore, let no one pride himself on his 
good works ; above all things, guard a spirit of humility 
and modesty : St. Paul, after all his labours, confessed 
that he was not meet to be called an Apostle, but was 
what he was by the grace of God. 3 ' What is impossible 
with men is possible with God.' ' Tell me not I have 
sinned much, and how can I be saved? Thou art not 
able, but thy Master is able so to blot out thy sins that 
no trace even of them shall remain. In the natural body, 
indeed, though the wound may be healed, yet the scar 
remains; but God does not suffer the scar even to re- 
main, but, together with release from punishment, grants 
righteousness also, and makes the sinner to be equal to him 

1 In Gen. Horn. v. c. 1. 2 In Eplies. Horn. iv. c. 2. 

3 In Gen. Horn. xxxi. 2. 



426 LIFE AND TIMES OE ST. G5HRYSOSTOM. [Oh. XXIU. 

who lias not sinned. He makes the sin neither to be nor 
to have been. 5 . . . i Sin is drowned in the ocean of G 
mercy, jnst as a spark is extinguished in a flood of water.' l 
It was, no doubt, the trustful dependence of Chrysostom 
on Divine grace, coupled with his firm conviction of the 
free capacity of man to turn to what is good, which 
enabled him to pitch all his exhortations to Christian 
holiness in such a singularly cheerful, hopeful tone. To 
his sanguine temperament it seemed as if mans natural 
capacities for good, aided by grace obtained through 
prayer, could accomplish anything. i The effect of prayer 
on the heart is like that of the rising sun upon the 
natural world ; as the wild beasts come forth by night to 
prowl and prey, but the sun ariseth, and they get them 
away together and lay them down in their dens, so, when 
the soul is illuminated by prayer, the irrational and brutal 
passions are put to flight, anger is calmed, lust is extin- 
guished, envy is expelled; prayer is the treasure of the 
poor, the security of the rich, the poorest of all men is 
rich if he can pray, and the rich man who cannot pray is 
miserably poor. Ahab without prayer was impotent amidst 
his splendour; Elijah with prayer was mighty in his coarse 
garment of sheepskin." 2 . . . ■ It is impossible, impossible 
that a man who calls constantly on God with proper zeal 
should ever sin ; his spirit is proof against temptation so 
long as the effect of his praying lasts, and when it begins 
to fail, then he must pray again. And this may be done 
anywhere, in the market or in the shop, since prayer 
demands the outstretched soul, rather than the extended 
hands. 5 3 Long prayers were to be avoided, they gave 
great opportunities to Satan to distract the attention, 
which could not easily bear a lengthened strain. Prayers 
should be frequent and short ; thus we should best comply 
with the direction of St. Paul to pray without ceasing. 4 

1 De Penit. Horn. viii. 2. 3 De Anna, iv. -5. 

2 Cent. Abodi. vii. 7. i Ibid. ii. 2. 



Oh. XXIIL] PASSAGES ABOUT BAPTISM. 427 

It remains to collect some notices of Chrysostoin's 
teaching with reference to the two Sacraments. 

The number of those who, as Christian children of 
decidedly Christian parents, were baptised in infancy 
appears to have been small at this period, compared with 
those who, like Chiwsostom himself, joined the ranks of 
the Church at a later epoch of life. There were many 
whose parents, one or both, or who themselves, hovered 
not so much between Christianity and any definite form 
of paganism, as between Christianity and worldliness. 
The sermons addressed by Chrysostom and his contem- 
poraries to catechumens, and the frequent allusions to 
them, the minute directions respecting their instruction, 
their division into classes, the custom of calling the first 
part of the service to which they were admitted the 
Missa Catechumenorum, prove that numerous they must 
have been. I have failed to find any passages in which 
Chrysostom urgently inculcates infant baptism, and, con- 
sidering his views respecting original sin, this is not sur- 
prising ; but he earnestly denounces a custom of deferring 
baptism, prevalent among those who were already believers, 
or professing to be such. Often it was delayed till men 
believed themselves to be at the point of death — a practice 
which he especially deprecates, because at such a time ' the 
recipient was often in a restless, suffering state of mind 
and body, most unfit to receive that holy sacrament; 
the entrance of the priest was regarded by the sorrowful 
attendants as a certain evidence of the approaching end ; 
and when the rich man could not recognise those who 
were present, or hear a voice, or answer in those words by 
which he was to enter into a blessed covenant with our 
Lord, but lay like a log or a stone, what possible advant- 
age could there be in the reception of the sacrament ? ' l 
Again, it was often delayed till a man conceived that he 

] Ad ilium. Catcch i. c. 3, 



428 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXni. 

liad received a distinct call and intimation that it was 
the will of God. This Chrysostom regarded as being too 
often a mere cloak for moral indolence, a reluctance of 
men to bind themselves nnder the high responsibilities of 
the Christian vocation. 1 

He certainly considered baptism as being not merely a 
solemn initiation into the Christian covenant, and instru- 
ment of remission of sin, but also of moral renovation. 
This, however, is represented as a blessing naturally 
derivable from the entrance into the new and holy federal 
relation with God. In his comment on the passage, 
( and such were some of you ; but ye are washed, but ye 
are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of our 
Lord Jesus Christ,' he observes that such words signify 
that they were not only purified from past uncleanness, 
but had become holy and righteous. c For such is the 
benevolence of the Divine gift ; if an imperial letter con- 
sisting of a few lines discharges men from liability to 
punishment for any number of offences, and advances 
others to great honour, much more will the Holy Spirit 
of God, which can do all things, release us from all 
wickedness, bestow on us abundant righteousness, and fill 
us with much confidence.' The nature of the baptised was, 
therefore, like a vessel which had not only been cleansed 
from past defilements, but recast in the furnace so as to 
come out in a new shape. 2 He is far, however, from 
regarding such a change as final. The virtue of baptism is 
effectual at the time, but the grace then given is as a trust 
to be carefully guarded; a talent to be traded with, a 
seed of righteousness to be diligently cultivated, the 
dawning of a light to shine more and more unto the 
perfect day. As Christ becomes at that time the clothing, 
the food, the habitation of the Christian, the recipient of 
these favours has to take care that he does not wrong this 

1 De ^lut. Norn. iv. in line. 2 Ad ilium. Catech. i. 3. 



Cir. XXIII.] THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 429 

intimate relationship. Therefore he is ordered to say at 
baptism, 6 1 renounce thee, Satan ; ' that is the declaration 
of a covenant with his Master. A firm determination to 
abandon past sin, and eradicate evil habits — in a word, 
repentance — should take place previous to baptism. ' Just 
as the painter freely alters the lineaments of his picture, 
when it is sketched in outline, by rubbing out or putting 
in, but when once he has added the colour, he is no 
longer at liberty to make alterations ; in like manner 
erase evil habits before baptism, before the true colouring 
of the Holy Spirit has been thrown over the soul : take 
care when this has been received, and the royal image 
shines forth clearly, that you do not blot it out any more, 
and inflict wounds and scars on the beauty given thee by 
God.' 1 

In another place he contrasts the baptism of the Jews, 
of John the Baptist, and of Jesus Christ. ' The first was 
only a cleansing of the body from ceremonial defilements, 
the second was a means of enforcing an exhortation to 
repentance, the third was accompanied by remission of 
sins : it releases and purges the soul from sin, and gives 
a supply of the Holy Spirit.' 2 .... ' When the merciful 
God saw the extremity of our weakness, and the incurable 
nature of our sickness, requiring a great work of heal- 
ing, He conferred upon us that renovation which comes 
through the laver of regeneration, in order that, being 
divested of the old man, that is, of evil works, and having 
put on the new, we might go forward in the path of 
virtue.' 3 

In considering those passages which relate to the Holy 
Eucharist, it must be constantly borne in mind that Chry- 
sostom lived in an age when that Sacrament had not be- 
come a battle-field of controversy. He was under no 

1 Ad ilium. Catech. ii. 3. 2 De Bapt. Chr. c. 3. 

3 In Gen. Horn. xl. c. 4. 



430 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXni. 

constraint in his language, because he did not feel that 
every word he used was liable to be criticised, or misunder- 
stood, or torn to pieces in the strife of contending parties. 
He enjoyed because he disputed not. Filled with thank- 
fulness and joy to overflowing for the unspeakable benefits 
derived from that Sacrament, he is not cautious or scrupu- 
lously precise in his expressions, but gives the freest rein 
to the enthusiasm of his feelings ; his object being not 
to sujDport any rigidly defined theory or system, but to 
infuse a certain spirit, to encourage a proper moral tone 
and temper in reference to the whole subject. 

Three ideas, however, are apparent as dominant in his 
mind — a sacrifice, a presence of Christ, a reception of 
Christ. In several of the passages about to be presented, 
all the three points will appear in similar and simulta- 
neous force. In one homily, 1 where he severely censures 
the custom among many of attending the Eucharist on 
great festivals only, and then behaving in a disorderly 
manner, hustling and trampling on one another in their 
tumultuous haste to approach the holy table, and then 
hurrying out of church immediately after the recep- 
tion, without waiting for the conclusion of the service — 
' What,' he exclaims, ■ man, art thou doing P When 
Christ is present, and the angels are standing by, and the 
awe-inspiring table is spread before thee, dost thou with- 
draw ? ' . . . 6 If you are invited to a feast and are filled 
before the other guests, you do not dare to withdraw 
while the rest of your friends are still reclining at the 
table ; and here, when the mysteries of Christ are being 
celebrated, and the holy feast is still going on, dost thou 
retreat in the middle?' A gain :.-' Since, then, we are 
about to see this evening, as a lamb slain and sacrificed, 
Him who was crucified, let us approach, I pray you, with 
trembling awe. The angels, who surpass our nature, stood 

1 De Bapt. J. Chr. c. 7. 



Cii.XXIIL] A SACRIFICE AND A FEAST. 431 

beside his empty tomb with great reverence; and shall 
we, who are about to stand beside, not an empty sepulchre, 
but the very table which bears the Lamb, shall we ap- 
proach with noise and confusion ? ' 1 Again : ( It is now 
time to draw near the awe-inspiring table ' . . . 6 Christ is 
present, and He who arranged that first table, even He 
arranges this present one. For it is not man who makes 
the things which are set before us become the body and 
blood of Christ, but it is Christ Himself, who was crucified 
for us. The priest stands fulfilling his part (cr^^a) 
by uttering the appointed words, but the power and the 
grace are of God. " This is my body," he says. This 
expression changes the character (uLSTappvO/j.it.sL) of the 
elements, and as that sentence, " increase and multiply," 
once spoken, extends through all time, enabling the pro- 
creative power of our nature, even so that expression, 
" this is my body," once uttered, does at eveiy table in 
the churches from that time to the present day, and even 
till Christ's coming, make the sacrifice perfect.' 2 Speaking 
of the sacrifice of Isaac, he observes that it was perfect so 
far as Abraham was concerned, because his intention 
did not fail, though the knife was not actually drawn 
across his son's throat ; c for a sacrifice is possible even 
without blood — the initiated (i.e. the baptised) know what 
I mean : on this account, also, that sacrifice was made 
without blood, since it was destined to be a figure of this 
sacrifice of ours.' 3 

Perhaps the most significant passage with reference to 
the sacrificial idea is one where, after contrasting the 
many and ineffective sacrifices of the Jews with the one 
perfect, efficacious sacrifice of Christ, he proceeds : ' What 
then ? do we not offer every day ? We do offer certainly, 
but making a memorial of his death ; and this memorial 

1 De Ccemet. et Cruce, in fine, vol. ii. 2 De Prod. Jud. vol. ii. Horn. i. c. 6. 
3 In Eustath. Ant. vol. ii. p. 601. 



432 LIFE AND TIMES OP ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXIII. 

is one, not many. How one, not many? Because the 
sacrifice was offered once for all, as that great sacrifice 
was in the Holy of Holies. This is a figure of that great 
sacrifice as that was of this ; for we do not offer one 
victim to-day and another to-morrow, but always the 
same : wherefore the sacrifice is one. Well, on this ground, 
because He is offered in many places, are there many 
Christs ? Nay, by no means, but one Christ everywhere, 
complete both in this world and in the other; one body. 
As then, though offered in many places, He is but one 
body, so is there but one sacrifice. Our High Priest is 
He who offers the sacrifice which cleanses us. We offer 
that now which was offered then ; which is indeed incon- 
sumable. This takes place now for a memorial of what 
took place then : " Do this," said He, " for my memorial." 
We do not then offer a different sacrifice as the high 
priest formerly did, but always the same ; or, rather, we 
celebrate a memorial of a Sacrifice.' 1 

There are other passages in which the idea, no less 
prominently set forth, is that of a holy feast. Elijah 
bequeathed his mantle and a double portion of his spirit 
to Elisha, ' but the Son of God, when He ascended, left us 
his own flesh.' . . . 6 He who did not decline to shed his 
blood for all, and imparts to us again his flesh and blood, 
what will he refuse to do for our salvation ? ' 2 Again : 
4 Consider, man, what kind of sacrifice thou art about 
to touch, what kind of table to approach; reflect that 
thou who art but dust and ashes receivest the body and 
blood of Christ.' 3 The sedulous care with which he 
urges the duty of moral cleansing before venturing to 
approach the holy table, proceeds chiefly from regarding 
it as a holy feast. ' How shall we behold the sacred 
passover ? How shall we receive the sacred feast ? How 

1 In Ep. ad Hebr. Horn. xvii. c. 3. 2 Horn. ii. De Stat. c. 9. 

3 De Nat. Christi, c. 7. 



Cn. XXIIL] LANGUAGE NOT TO BE PRESSED. 433 

partake of the adorable mysteries with that tongue 
whereby we trampled on the Law of Grod and defiled our 
soul ? for if one would not touch a royal robe with 
defiled hands, how shall we receive the Lord's body with 
an unclean tongue ? ' l 

These passages, which are but a few specimens ex- 
tracted from a large number on the same subject, are yet 
sufficient to show how easy it would be for the partisans 
of contending schools to press the language of Chry- 
sostom into support of their own system. The truth is, 
that in the case of this, as of other subjects, we find in Chry- 
sostom and his contemporaries the raw material, which has 
been wrought out by the toil and strife of later times into 
definite sharply chiselled dogmas. Nothing, therefore, 
can really be more unfair than to regard, as a direct 
friend or opponent, one who lived and wrote long before 
controversy had arisen on the subjects of which he 
treated. He might innocently employ expressions which 
we should deem it incautious to use, because we know the 
interpretation of which they are susceptible, or because 
we see in them incipient symptoms of an idea which in 
process of time grew into a mischievous error. It is in- 
structive also to notice how harmless, doctrines, after- 
wards mischievous, were when not pushed to an extremity ; 
not made integral parts of a system of belief. It does 
not occur to us, for instance, for a moment to suppose 
that such invocation of saints as was manifestly approved 
by Chrysostom was the least detrimental to that free 
intercourse which ought to exist between the soul of man 
and God Himself. As Dr. Pusey has observed, ' through 
volumes of St. Augustine and St. Chrysostom there is no 
mention of any reliance except on Christ alone.' 2 There 

1 De Stat. xi. c. 5. The authenticity contains on this subject. It will be 
of the letter to Csesarius is so doubtful found in the Appendix, where the cu- 
that I have not ventured to introduce rious history of this letter is related, 
here the celebrated passage which it 2 Eirenikon, part i. p. 112. 

F F 



434 LIFE AKD TDIES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Cm XXEI, 

is not the least approach to that system of stepping- 
stones or halting-places between God and man, which the 
Roman Chnrch established by means of confession, saint- 
worship, and, above all, Mariolatry. 

There is no trace in Chrysostom of priestly confession 
as an ordinance of the Church. When he speaks of the 
misery which ensues on the commission of sin, he urges 
the sinner to relieve his conscience by a free confession 
with repentance and tears. ' And why are you ashamed 
to do so ? ' he proceeds, ' for to whom do you confess ? Is 
it to a man or a fellow- servant who might reproach or 
expose you? Nay, it is to the Lord, tender and merciful: 
it is to the physician that you show your wound.' 1 
Again, in speaking of prayer, he contrasts the freedom of 
access to God with the difficulties and impediments which 
encounter the delivery of a petition to some great man. 
' This last could be reached only through porters, flat- 
terers, parasites ; whereas God is invoked without the 
intervention of anyone, without money, without expense 
of any kind.' 2 This reads like a prophetical sarcasm on 
a Church which ultimately made a traffic of dispensing" 
what cannot really be dispensed by man, because it is the 
free gift of God. 

Nor is there any symptom in Chrysostom of a tendency 
to the theory of Purgatory. The condition of man after 
death is always represented by him as final and irrevocable. 
His tone, when exhorting to repentance, is always in har- 
mony with the following passage : c For the day will come 
when the theatre of this world will be dissolved, and 
then it is not possible to contend any longer : this is the 
season of repentance, that of judgment ; this of contest, 
that of crowning ; this of labour, that of repose.' 3 

But of all niediseval additions to the purer faith oi 
primitive times, Mariolatry has grown to the most extra- 

1 De Laz. Horn. iv. 4. 2 De Pcenit. Horn. iv. 4. 3 Ibid. ix. 



Cn. XXIIL] THE VIRGIN MARY. 435 

ordinary dimensions. 1 Of any tendency to this error 
there is in Chrysostom a remarkable absence. In fact, his 
notices of the Blessed Virgin, not very frequent, are on 
the whole, we might almost say, unnecessarily dispar- 
aging. In his commentary on the Marriage Feast at 
Cana, he suggests that the Virgin, in mentioning the 
failure of wine to our Lord, may have been anxious to 
draw out his miraculous powers, partly to place the guests 
under an obligation to Him, partly to enhance her own 
dignity through the display of her Son's divine powers. 
He considers that the appeal sprang from the same feeling 
which prompted his brethren to say, ' Show Thyself to the 
world ; ' and he proceeds to observe that our Lord, while 
never failing to manifest dutiful reverence and affectionate 
care towards his mother, has taught us, by his conduct 
and language to her, that the tie of mere earthly kindred 
entitled her not to higher privileges, and placed her in no 
more intimate spiritual relationship with Himself, than 
anyone might through love and obedience enjoy. 'Who is 
my mother, and who are my brethren ? ' and looking round 
about on his disciples, He said, ' Behold my mother and 
my brethren, for whosoever shall do the will of my Father, 
the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.' 
' Heavens ! ' Chrysostom exclaims, 6 what honour ! what 
reward ! to what a pinnacle does He exalt those who 
follow Him ! How many women have blessed the Holy 
Virgin and her womb, and have longed to be such mothers ! 
"What then prevents it ? Behold, He opens a broad way 
for us : not women only, but men also are permitted to 
be placed in the same rank.' ' The demand to see Him 
was made by his mother in an ambitious spirit : she 
wished to show to the people how much authority she 
possessed over Him ; at any rate, the request was un- 

1 See Dr. Pusey's history of the cultus and its mischievous effects, in Parts 
i. and ii. of the ' Eirenikon.' 

f f 2 






436 LIFE AND TIMES OP ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXni. 

reasonable and unseasonable. If she and his brethren de- 
sired to speak with Him on matters of doctrine, they 
might have done so in the presence of the others ; but if 
on private matters, it was an ill-timed interruption to his 
discourse on weightier subjects.' * Again : ' When a woman 
in the company cried out, " Blessed is the womb that bare 
Thee ! " He instantly corrected her, " Yea, rather blessed 
are they that hear the word of God and keep it." ' It is 
possible that the general sentiment of the age may have 
regarded the Virgin with more veneration, but Chry- 
sostom could not have ventured to use such language 
had the cultus been in any but its very earliest stage, if 
then. She is called holy by him ; she intercedes 2 for 
Eve, who is a type of herself, but of worship paid to her 
there is not the slightest evidence. 3 

It is almost superfluous to observe that Chrysostom 
knew and acknowledged nothing of papal supremacy, in 
the sense which those words conveyed to the minds of 
later generations. In common with the rest of Christen- 
dom, he paid great deference and respect to the metro- 
politan at Rome, and he was quite free from those feelings 
of jealousy which were entertained by the patriarchs of 
Constantinople, as time went on, owing to the increasing 
pretensions and exactions of the Roman See. If he 
respects Innocent, partly because occupying the chair of 
St. Peter, he equally respects Flavian, Bishop of Antioch 
(who was not in communion with Rome), for the same 
reason ; he calls him ' our common father and teacher, who 
has inherited St. Peter's virtue and his chair.' The letter 
written to Innocent during exile was addressed also to 

1 In John, Horn. xxi. 2; and in edification and without offence: were 
Matt. Horn. xliv. 1. a Koman Catholic preacher to confine 

2 De Mundi Creat. vi. 10. himself to their preaching, he would 
8 Vide Dr. Pusey, Eiren. i. p. 113 : (as it has heen said among themselves) 

' We could preach whole volumes of he regarded as " indevout towards 
the sermons of St. Augustine or St. Mary."' 
Chrysostom to our people, to their 



Ch. XXIII.] LITURGICAL FORMS. 437 

the Bishops of Milan and Aquileia. In his commentary 
on Galatians ii., he proves the equality of St. Paul with 
St. Peter. ~No doubt he assigns an eminent rank to St. 
Peter, speaking of him as * leader of the band ' (jcopvfyaZos) 
of Apostles, and as entrusted with the ' chieftainship ' 
(irpoGTaaiav) of the brethren : but these words do not 
imply absolute authority, and the same appellations are 
applied to St. Paul also. 

Scattered up and down the discourses of Chrysostom 
there are abundant references to the liturgical forms, and 
manner of using them, which were in vogue in his time. 
If we had no other authority, we could learn from him alone 
that the service consisted of two parts — the first, called 
Missa Catechumenorum, because the catechumens were 
permitted to be present at it, which included an opening 
salutation of ' Peace be with you,' with the response, 
' And with thy Spirit,' psalms sung antiphonally, appointed 
lessons according to the season or the day (as Genesis 
was read during Lent, the Acts of the Apostles in Pente- 
cost, that is, during the fifty days between Easter and 
Whitsun Day), the sermon, frequently in Chrysostom's 
case, on the lesson for the day, the preacher usually 
sitting, and the people standing ; then prayers, announced 
by the deacon, for the catechumens, the ' possessed,' and 
the penitents; the benediction by the bishop, and dismissal 
by the deacon, who bade them ' depart in peace.' The 
second part of the service then began, called Missa 
Pidelium, because the baptised only were permitted to be 
present. Chrysostom strongly denounces an increasing 
tendency on the part of many to remain during this 
second and more sacred portion without participating. 
He plainly declares that all those who were baptised should 
communicate, and tells them, if they were not worthy to 
receive the Eucharist, neither could they be worthy to 
join in the prayers which preceded the reception, and 



438 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXIII. 

therefore they ought to quit the church, with the cate- 
chumens and penitents, when the deacon commanded all 
unbaptised, ungodly, and unbelieving persons to depart. 1 
The usual order of the Missa Fidelium was £ the silent 
prayer ' (sv\V $ia crLwirrjs), on part of the priest and people 
(which the latter too often abused, Chrysostom feared, to 
imprecate vengeance on their enemies 2 ) ; then a prayer 
somewhat equivalent to our bidding prayer in form, and 
to our prayer for the Church Militant in substance, the 
deacon bidding or proclaiming the forms, and the people 
responding ; then a prayer of invocation made by the 
bishop, which was also called c collecta, 5 because in it the 
prayers of the people were considered to be gathered or 
summed up ; the oblations of the people presented by the 
deacons ; the kiss of peace, the reading of the diptychs, 
the ablution of the priest's hands, the bringing of the 
elements to the bishop at the altar, while the priests 
stood on each side, and deacons held large fans to drive 
away the flies ; a secret prayer offered by the bishop ; the 
benediction, 6 The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,' etc., to 
which the people responded, ' And with thy Spirit;' fol- 
lowed by ' Lift up your hearts ' — 6 We lift them up unto 
the Lord ;' c Let us give thanks to our Lord God' — ' It is 
meet and right so to do ; ' a long thanksgiving, terminating 
with the Ter Sanctus, in which the people joined; the 
consecration prayer, including the words of our Lord at 
the time of institution, and an invocation of the Holy 
Spirit to make the elements become the body and blood 
of Christ ; a prayer for all members of the Church, living 
and dead ; the doxology, the Creed ; a prayer of the bishop 
for sanctification ; the words pronounced by him, 6 Holy 
things for holy people ' {ra ciyta tols dylocs) ; the reception 
by the clergy and laity in both kinds, taking the elements 
into their hands ; concluding prayers, and dismissal by 

1 In Ephes. Horn. iii. in fine. 2 Vol. iii. p. 362. 



Ch. XX1IL] LITURGY .OF CHRYSOSTOM. 439 

the deacon proclaiming, c Go in peace.' Nearly all of 
the forms indicated in this sketch are more or less clearly 
referred to or quoted in Chrysostom's works, and from 
these, with the aid of other contemporary writers and 
documents, we might construct a liturgy, which would 
more nearly resemble that actually used by him than the 
liturgy called by his name resembles it. 1 For in this, as 
in the so-called liturgy of Basil, it is impossible now to 
determine how much was actually composed by the Father 
who gave his name to it. It cannot be proved that Chry- 
sostom actually corrected or improved at all the liturgy 
which he found in use at Constantinople. It may only 
have come to be called after him as being the greatest 
luminary who ever occupied the see. The statement, 
however, made in a tract ascribed to Proclus, Patriarch 
of Constantinople in the fifth century, is not in itself 
improbable, that Chrysostom found the existing liturgy so 
long that many of the congregation, being men of business, 
and pressed for time, left before the service was concluded, 
or came in after it had begun, and therefore he abridged 
and otherwise altered it. In any case, many alterations 
were made by different churches and bishops in the course 
of time, as in other liturgies, so also in those which bear 
the name of Basil and Chrysostom ; and hence, as Mont- 
faucon, Savile, Cave, and others have remarked, you can- 
not find any two copies which are exactly alike. 

A critical estimate of Chrysostom's value as a commen- 
tator hardly falls within the scope of an essay on his life, 
but a few general observations on this head may not be 
deemed out of place here. The same fact was the cause 
in him of much excellence and some defect in this depart- 

1 I have not thought it expedient suited in Bingham, book xv., who has 

to crowd the margin with references collected them with great care. The 

to Chrysostom's works, for every one fullest passages occur in vol. ii. p. 345 

of the liturgical forms above-men- iii. p. 104; x. pp, 200 and 527; xi. 

tioned. They may nearly all be con- p. 323. 



440 LIFE AND TDIES OF ST. CHEYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXHI. 

ment. He was a preacher whose primary object was to 

convert souls. This earnest, practical aim, of which he 
never lost sight, helped to protect him from lapsing into 
idle, fanciful, mystical interpretations of Scripture ; but, 
on the other hand, it hindered his entering so fully into 
all the historical, grammatical, or even doctrinal questions 
which might be raised about a passage as he would have 
done had he been exclusively a commentator. His domi- 
nant aim being to affect the heart and the moral practice 
of his hearers, he is content when he has elicited from 
the passage all that will be most useful for that purpose, 
and the continuity of the commentary is frequently marred 
by sudden digressions. His ignorance of Hebrew was of 
course fatal to his being an accurate interpreter of the 
Old Testament, since he was entirely dependent on the 
Septuagint translation. And even in Greek, though few 
would deny him the merit of fine scholarship on the 
whole, though his command of the language as an orator 
is masterly, his style luminous, his diction copious and 
rich without being offensively ornate or redundant, yet 
his hold upon the language for critical purposes is neither 
that of a man who spoke it when it was in its purest 
stage, nor that of a scholar who, living in a later age and 
speaking a different tongue, has made of Greek a careful, 
laborious study. 

But two invaluable qualifications for an interpreter Chry- 
sostom did possess — a thorough love for the Sacred Book, 
and a thorough familiarity with every part of it. There 
is no topic on which he dwells more frequently and 
earnestly than on the duty of every Christian man and 
woman to study the Bible ; and what he bade others do, 
that he did pre-eminently himself. He rebukes the silly 
vanity of rich people who prided themselves on possessing 
finely written and handsomely bound copies of the Bible. 
but who knew little about the contents. Study of the 



Ch. XXm.] CHRYSOSTOM AS A COMMENTATOR. 441 

Bible was more necessary for the layman than the monk, 
because he was exposed to more constant and formidable 
temptations. The Christian without a knowledge of his 
Bible was like a workman without his tools. Like the 
tree planted by the water-side, the soul of the diligent 
reader would be continually nourished and refreshed. 
There were no difficulties which would not yield to a 
patient study of it. Neither earthly grandeur, nor friends, 
nor indeed any human thing, could afford in suffering 
such comfort as Holy Scripture, for this was the com- 
panionship of God. ' 

The honest, straightforward common-sense which marks 
his practical exhortations was a useful quality to him 
also as an interpreter. One of his principles is, that 
sound doctrine could not be extracted from Holy Scripture 
but by a careful comparison of many passages not isolated 
from their context. 2 Allegorical interpretations were by 
no means to be rejected, but to be used with caution; 
men too often made the mistake of dictating what Scrip- 
ture should mean instead of submitting to be taught by 
it: they introduced a meaning instead of eliciting it. 3 
Thus, though he often accepts popular types — as Boaz 
and Ruth are figures of Christ and his bride the Church ; 
and Noah, Joseph, Joshua, are all in different ways re- 
presentative of our Lord ; though sometimes particular 
expressions in Messianic prophecies are forced, for in- 
stance, in Isaiah's description of Immanuel, the ' butter 
and honey ' there spoken of he supposes to be intended 
to indicate the reality of our Lord's humanity — yet his 
customary aim is to discover the literal sense and direct 
historical bearing of the passage. At the same time he 
fully recognises a general foreshadowing of Jesus Christ, 
and the complete fulfilment in Him ultimately of prophe- 

1 Vol. ii. pp. 17, 92, 522 et passim. 3 In Isai. v. 3, and vi. 

2 Vol. vi. 157. 4 Ibid. vii. 6. 



442 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXHI. 

cies which immediately refer to persons and events nearly, 
if not quite, contemporaneous with the utterance. He 
fails not also to point out the moral aspect of prophecy 
as a system of teaching rather than prediction, as pre- 
paratory to the advent of Jesus Christ in the flesh, not 
only by informing men's minds, but disciplining their 
hearts to receive Him. 1 Hence the holy men who lived, 
under the Old Dispensation, in faith on God's promises 
knew Christ as it were by anticipation, and were to 
be reckoned as members of the one body. 2 

He had a clear conception of the essential coherence 
between the Old and New Testament. He observes that 
the very words ' old ' and c new ' are relative terms : new 
implies an antecedent; old, preparatory to it. The con- 
dition of the recipients, the circumstances and age in 
which they lived, being different, necessitated a difference 
in the treatment. A physician treated the same patient 
at different times by directly contrary methods ; sometimes 
administering sweet, sometimes bitter medicines, some- 
times using the lancet, sometimes cautery, but always 
with the same ultimate end in view — the health of his 
patient. So the Old and New Testaments were different, 
but not, as the Manichseans maintained, antagonistic. The 
commandment, ' Thou shalt not kill,' attacked the fruit 
and consequence of vice; the precept, 'Whosoever is 
angry with his brother without a cause,' &c, struck at 
the root. This was an illustration in a small instance of 
the general truth that the New Dispensation was only a 
completion and expansion of the Old. Those, therefore, 
who rejected the Old Testament, dishonoured the New, 
which was based upon it, and presupposes it. 3 

He is equally rational in his manner of accounting for 
the variations in the Gospel narratives. That they differ 

1 In Is. vii. c. i. 2 In Ephes. Horn. x. 1. 

3 De Verb. Apost. vol. iii. p. 282. 



Ch. XXIII.] VIEWS ON INSPIRATION. 443 

in details, but agree in essential matters, he regards as 
a powerful evidence of veracity. Exact and verbal coin- 
cidence in every particular would have excited in the 
minds of opponents a suspicion of concerted agreement. 1 
Authors might write variously without being at variance : 
if there had been ten thousand evangelists, yet the Gospel 
itself would have been but one. 3 Each evangelist tells 
substantially the same tale, but varied according to the 
readers for whom he wrote, and the special object which 
he had in view. So St. Matthew wrote in Hebrew for the 
Jews, St. Mark for the disciples in Egypt, St. John to set 
forth the divine aspect of our Lord's life. Thus we have 
variety in unity, and unity in variety. 3 

In his commentaries on the Epistles he is careful to 
consider each as a connected whole ; and, in order to im- 
press this on his hearers, he frequently recapitulates at the 
beginning of a homily all the steps by which the part under 
consideration has been reached. In his introductions to 
each letter he generally makes useful observations on the 
author, the time, place, and style of composition, the 
readers for whom it was intended, the general character 
and arrangement of its contents. He regarded the Bible 
as in such a sense written under the inspiration of God, 
that no passage, no word even, was to be despised; 4 that 
men wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, but 
not to the total deprivation of their own human under- 
standing and personal character. The prophet was not 
like the seer who spoke under constraint, not knowing 
what he said; he retained his own faculties and style; 
only all his powers were quickened, energised by the 
Spirit to the utterance of words which unassisted he 
could not have uttered. 5 

1 In Matt. Horn. i. 2. 4 In Eom. Horn. xxxi. 1. 

2 In Galat. i. 6. 5 In Psalm xliv. ; in 1 Cor. Horn. 

3 In Matt. i. et in Johan. i, xxix. 1. 



444 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXin. 

Chrysostom' s influence as a preacher was not aided by 
any external advantages of person. Like so many men 
who have possessed great powers of command over the 
minds of others — like St. Paul, Athanasius, John Wesley — 
he was little of stature ; his frame was attenuated by the 
austerities of his youth and his habitually ascetic mode 
of life ; his cheeks were pale and hollow ; his eyes deeply 
sunken ; his forehead ample, but wrinkled ; his head bald. 
He frequently delivered his discourses sitting in the 
ambo, or high reading-desk, just inside the nave, in order 
to be near his hearers and well raised above them. But 
these physical disadvantages were more than compensated 
by other more important qualities. A power of exposition 
which unfolded in lucid order, passage by passage, the 
meaning of the book in hand; a rapid transition from 
clear exposition, or keen logical argument, to fervid ex- 
hortation, or pathetic appeal, or indignant denunciation ; 
the versatile ease with which he could lay hold of any 
little incident of the moment, such as the lighting of the 
lamps in the church, and use it to illustrate his discourse ; 
the mixture of plain common-sense and simple boldness, 
and yet tender affection, with which he would strike home 
to the hearts and consciences of his hearers — all these 
veins are not only general characteristics of the man, 
but are usually to be found manifested more or less in 
the compass of each discourse. It is this rare union of 
powers which constitutes his superiority to almost all 
the other Christian preachers with whom he might be, or 
has been, compared. Savonarola had all, and more than 
all, his fire and vehemence, but untempered by his sober, 
calm good sense, and wanting his rational method of 
interpretation. Chrysostom was eager and impetuous at 
times in speech as well as in action, but never fanatical. 
Jeremy Taylor combines, like Chrysostom, real earnest- 
ness of purpose with rhetorical forms of exj>ression and 



Cn. XXIIL] CHARACTERISTICS AS PREACHER. 445 

florid imagery; but, on the whole, his style is far more 
artificial, and is overladen with a multifarious learning 
from which Chrysostom's was entirely free. Wesley is 
almost his match in simple, straightforward, practical 
exhortation, but does not rise into flights of eloquence 
like his. The great French preachers, again, resemble 
him in his more ornate and declamatory vein, but they 
lack that simpler, common-sense style of address which 
equally distinguished him. Whether the sobriquet of 
Chrysostomos, ' the golden mouth,' was given to him in 
his lifetime is extremely doubtful ; at any rate, it seems 
not to have been commonly used till afterwards. John 
is the only name by which he is mentioned in the writings 
of historians who were most nearly contemporaneous, 
but the other was a well-known appellation before the 
end of the fifth century. 1 

The preservation of Chrysostom's discourses we owe 
mainly to the custom, prevalent in the Eastern Church at 
that time, of having the sermons of famous preachers 
taken clown by shorthand writers as they were spoken ; 
but some of them Chrysostom published himself. 2 To 
what extent they may have been written before preaching 
it is impossible to say. The expository parts were evidently 
the result of previous study and preparation ; the actual 
diction of the practical portions he may have left to the 
suggestion of the moment, though the main subjects of 
his address had been always decided upon beforehand. 
Extempore remarks were frequently called forth by the 
behaviour of the congregation, or some passing incident. 
The discourse delivered after his return from exile we 
also know to have been purely impromptu ; and Suidas 
observes that he 'had a tongue which exceeded the cata- 
racts of the Nile in fluency, so that he delivered many of 

1 Vide Tillemcmt, xi. p. 37. 2 Socr. vi. 4. 



446 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CIIRYSOSTOM. [Ch. XXHI. 

his panegyrics on the martyrs extempore without the least 
hesitation.' 1 His hearers were sometimes wrapt in such 
profound attention that pickpockets took advantage of 
it: 2 sometimes they were melted to tears, or beat their 
breasts and faces, and uttered groans and cries to Heaven 
for mercy ; at other times they clapped their hands or 
shouted — marks of approbation frequently paid at that 
time to eloquent preachers, but always sternly reproved 
by Chrysostom. 

Although his style is generally exuberantly rich, yet it 
is seldom offensively redundant, for every word is usually 
telling; and at times he is epigrammatically terse. A 
few instances will suffice : — ' The fire of sin is large, but it 
is quenched by a few tears ;' c Pain was given on account of 
sin, yet through pain sin is dissolved ; ' e Eiches are called 
possessions (fCTti/iara) that we may possess them, not be 
possessed by them ; ' c You are master of much wealth, 
do not be a slave to that whereof God has made you 
master ; ' ' Scripture relates the sins of saints that we 
may fear, the conversion of sinners that we may hope.' 
He refers to a visitation of Antioch by an earthquake, 
as God { shaking the city, but establishing your minds; 
making the city crumble, but consolidating your judg- 
ment.' 

His familiarity with classical Greek authors is apparent 
sometimes in direct references. He speaks of ' the smooth- 
ness of Isocrates, the weight of Demosthenes, the dignity 
of Thucydides, the sublimity of Plato.' 3 He quotes the 
beginning of the 'Apology,' to show that if Socrates did 
not put a high value on mere fine talking, how much less 
should the Christian. 4 He illustrates the readiness of men 
to supply the wants of the monk by a passage from Plato, 
where Crito says that his money, and that of Cebes and 

1 Suid. ; vide verb. Johannes. 3 De Sacerd. iv. 6. 

4 Cont. Anora. Horn. iv. 4 Adv. Oppugn. Vit. Mon. iii. 2. 



Cn. XXIIL] CLASSICAL ALLUSIONS. 447 

many others, is at the disposal of Socrates ; and, go where 
he will, he may rely on finding- friends. 1 Sometimes we 
detect a thought derived, it may have been unconsciously, 
from classical sources. When he compares the crowd 
of the congregation before him to the sea, and the play 
upon the surface of that sea of heads to the effect of a 
strong west wind stirring and bending the ears of corn, 2 
it is impossible not to think that the idea was suggested 
by the well-known simile in Homer (II. ii. 147). Again, 
when, in speaking of David's sin, he compares the body to 
a chariot, the soul to the charioteer, and says that, when 
the soul is intoxicated by passion, the chariot is dragged 
along at random, it can hardly be fanciful to see a reflec- 
tion of Plato's celebrated image of the charioteer and 
horses in the ' Phsedrus.' 3 

But, whatever admiration Chrysostom may have re- 
tained of those authors whom he had studied in his 
youth, it was confined to their language, for with their 
ideas and modes of thought he had, so far as we can 
judge, abandoned all sympathy. Nor was this unnatural. 
Christianity existed in such close contact with pagan cor- 
ruption, it had suffered so much from pagan persecution, 
that the revulsion of earnest Christians from all things 
pagan was total and indiscriminating. 6 The old order 
changeth, yielding place to new;' and the new, having 
fought a hard struggle with the old, is for a long time 
incapable of recognising merit in anything belonging to 
it. There are several allusions in Chrysostom to the 
' Eepublic ' of Plato, but they are always depreciative. He 
fastens on a few points, such as the regulations about 
marriage and female work, and condemns it on these as 
absurd and childish, quite failing to consider the idea in its 
grandeur as a whole. 4 Yet it is instructive to notice that 

1 Adv. Oppugn. Vit. Mon. ii. 4. 3 Ibid. ii. 1. 

2 De Pceuit. vi. 1. * In Johan. Horn. ii. 2, and vol. vii. 30, 



448 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [Ok. XXIII. 

lie never hesitates to assign to Plato the first place among 
the heathen philosophers, dignifying him with the title of 
Coryphceus. 1 He often compares the failure of Plato's 
teaching to regenerate men in every rank with the suc- 
cessful labours of St. Paul and the other apostles ; but, 
while he rejoices that the writings and doctrine of the 
philosopher were eclipsed by the tentmaker and fisher- 
man, and well-nigh forgotten, he evidently regarded it 
as the most signal triumph which Christianity had 
achieved. 2 

Unquestionable as the intellectual genius of Chrysostom 
was, yet it is rather in the purity of his moral character, 
his single-minded boldness of purpose, and the glowing 
piety _which burns through all his writings, that we find 
the secret of his influence. If it was rather the mission 
of Augustine to mould the minds of men so as to take a 
firm grasp of certain great doctrines, it was the mission 
of Chrysostom to inflame the whole heart with a fervent 
love of God. Rightly has he been called the great 
teacher of consummate holiness, as Augustine was the 
great teacher of efficient grace ; 3 rightly has it been re- 
marked that, like Fenelon, he is to be ranked among 
those who may be termed disciples of St. John, men who 
seem to have been pious without intermission from their 
childhood upwards, and of whose piety the leading cha- 
racteristics are ease, cheerfulness, and elevation : while 
Augustine belongs to the disciples of St. Paul, those who 
have been led astray by the allurements of the world, 
but in later life are brought back to the love and service 
of God, and whose characteristics are gravity, earnest- 
ness, depth. 4 If Augustine has done more valuable 

1 Vol. xi. p. 694. et piscatores nostros totus orbis loqui- 

2 Vol. ix. p. 407. Comp. Jerome : tur, universus mundus sonat.' — In 
' Quotusquisque nunc Aristotelem Galat. iii. 

legit ? quanti Platonis vcl libros no- s Al. Knox, ' Bemains,' vol. iii. pp. 

vere, vel nomen? Vix in angulis otiosi 75-77. 

eos senes recolunt ; rusticanos vero 4 Jebb, ' Pastoral Discourses,' ii. 



Cn. XXIII. ] CHRYSOSTOM AND AUGUSTINE. 449 

service in building up the Church at large, Chrysostom 
is the more loveable to the individual, and speaks un- 
constrained by the fetters of a rigid, exclusive system. 
out of a heart overflowing with love to God and man. 
Yet it is precisely on this account that he has not 
been so generally appreciated as he deserves. His tone is 
too catholic for the Romanist, or for the sectarian par- 
tisan of any denomination. 6 It would be easy to produce 
abundant instances of his oratorical abilities ; I wish it 
were in my power to record as many of his evangelical 
excellencies.' Such is the verdict of a narrow-minded 
historian, 1 and the comparative estimation in which he 
held St. Augustine and St. Chrysostom may be inferred 
from the number of pages in his history given to each : 
St. Augustine is favoured with 187, Chrysostom with 20. 
But he whose judgment is not cramped by confinement 
in the shackles of some harsh and stiff theory of Gospel 
truth will surely allow that Chrysostom not only preached 
the Gospel, but lived it. To the last moment of his life 
he exhibited that calm, cheerful faith, patient resignation 
under affliction, and untiring perseverance for the good of 
others, which are pre-eminently the marks of a Christian 
saint. The cause for which he fought and died in a 
corrupt age was the cause of Christian holiness ; and, 
therefore, by the great mediaeval poet of Christendom he 
is rightly placed in Paradise between two men who, widely 
different indeed in themselves, time, and place from him 
and from one another, yet resembled him in this, that 
they freely and courageously spoke of God's ' testimonies 
even before kings, and were not ashamed '—Nathan the 
Seer, and Anselm the Primate of all England : — 

1 Natan profeta, e '1 metropolitan o 
Crisostomo, ed Anselmo. . .' 2 

1 Milner, Hist. ii. p. 302. 5 Dante, Parad. xii. 136. 

G G 



APPENDIX. 

[Vide ante, p. 433, note.] 



ON THE LETTER TO CiESARIUS, CHRYS. OP. vol. iii. p. 755. 

The history of this letter, and the controversy connected with it, 
are curious and interesting. Peter Martyr transcribed a Latin 
translation of it, which he found in a manuscript at Florence, 
carried it with him to England, and deposited it in the library of 
Archbishop Cranmer. After Cranmer's death, and the dispersion 
of his library, the letter disappeared. Peter Martyr had not 
stated the source from which he had derived it, and, therefore, 
when the assailants of the doctrine of Transubstantiation wished 
to make use of it, their opponents always maintained that it did 
not exist. In 1680, however, Emericus Bigotius discovered a 
copy in the library of St. Mark's Convent, at Florence, probably 
the same which Peter Martyr, himself a Florentine, had tran- 
scribed. Emericus appended it to his edition of ' Palladius's Life 
of Chrysostom,' and in his preface endeavoured to vindicate its au- 
thenticity; but the doctors of the Sorbonne suppressed the letter, 
and such portions of the preface as related to it. Emericus, 
however, had retained in his own possession some of the entire 
copies after they were printed, before they came into the licen- 
ser's hands. The translation was published by Stephanus Le 
Moyne in 1685, by Jacob Basnage in 1687, and in 1689 by 
Harduin, a Jesuit, who strenuously maintained the Roman 
Catholic interpretation of the passage on the Eucharist. Mont- 
faucon adopted Harduin's version of it, annexing a few frag- 
ments in the Greek, picked out of Anastasius and John Damas- 
cene. 

John Damascene, Anastasius, and Nicephorus refer to the 
letter a3 authentic, nor does Harduin venture to dispute it ; but 
there are several points of evidence which seem to mark it as 
belonging to a later age than that of Chrysostom. It is not 

g g 2 



452 APPENDIX. 

quoted before Leontius, in the latter part of the sixth century, 
although it might usefully have been employed against the 
Eutychians. There are expressions in it which were not in 
common use till after Cyril of Alexandria had employed them 
against Nestorms. The language generally is that of one who had 
lived in the midst of the Nestorian and Eutychian controversies, 
and the style of the Greek fragments, as well as the tone of the 
Latin translation, are extremely unlike Chrysostoni's manner : 
the sentences are abrupt and rugged, and a kind of scholastic. 
dogmatic tone pervades the whole composition. The general 
scope of the letter is clear 1 : it is to maintain the doctrine of the 
two natures under one person in Jesus Christ, against the heresy 
of the Apollinarians ; or, if we accept the theory of Montfaucon, 
the intention of the author, living in the time of the Eutychian 
heresy, was to strike a blow at that by forging a letter supposed 
to be addressed by Chrysostom to a friend, warning him against 
Apollinarian errors, which had much in common with the Euty- 
chian. The passage in which the writer illustrates his position 
by a reference to the Holy Eucharist has been construed by Ro- 
man Catholics and Protestants in a sense agreeable to their own 
views on the subject. The writer has been labouring to prove 
that there were two distinct natures in the one person of Gk :l 
the Son Incarnate, and he proceeds as follows: — ' J::;::. 7 the 
bread before consecration is called bread, but when the Divine 
grace sanctifies it through the agency of the priest it is libei 
from the appellation of bread, and is regarded aS worthy of the 
appellation of the Lord's body, although the nature of bread 
remains in it, and we speak not of two bodies, but one body of 
the Son ; so here, the Divine nature being seated in the human 
body, the two together make up but one Son, one Person.' 



INDEX. 



ABLAVIUS 

ABLAVIUS, the prefect, grandfather 
of Olympias, 292 

Aeaeius, bishop of Beroea, carries a pe- 
tition to Rome, 247 ; a leader of the 
faction hostile to Chrysostora, 294 ; 
plots against Chrysostom after his 
recall, 342 ; undertakes the responsi- 
bility, with Antiochus, of the arch- 
bishop's deposition, 347, 353 ; bribes 
Lucius to disperse the people at the 
Baths, 350 ; assists in ordaiuiug Por- 
phyry, 374 

Acacius of Caesarea preaches at Antioch, 
20 

iEmilius, a champion of Roman free- 
dom. 252 

JEmilius, bishop of Beneventum, one 
of the Italian deputation, 368 

Aetius, an extreme Arian, 115 

Africa, Church of, maintaius communion 
with Theophilus and Chrysostom, to2 

African Council, resolution of, wishing 
for intercourse between Rome and 
Alexandria, 402 

Alaric, a royal Visigoth, 195 ; descends 
into Thrace and ravages the country 
round Constantinople, 216 ; mock 
interview with Rufinus, 216; over- 
runs Greece, 216; spreads devasta- 
tion over Peloponnesus, 219; made 
commander-in-chief of the forces of 
the East, 219 ; efforts to gain Rome, 
.374 

Alexander, governor at Antioch, 11 

Alexander of Basilinopolis, a friend of 
Chrysostom, 343 

Alexander Severus, Emperor, 49 

Alexander succeeds Porphyry in the see 
of Antioch, 394; pays honour to 
Chrysostom, 405 

Alexandria, vices of the Christian popu- 
lation of, 11; tumults at, 33; pro- 
ducts of monks shipped to, 68 ; 
religious riots at, 70 ; parochial di- 
visions, 108 note; sedition at, 157 ; 
order restored by Cynegius, 158; its 



AMMON 
mixed population, 203 ; flight of 
Theophilus to, 338 

Alexandrian school, allegorical inter- 
pretations of, 31 

Almsgiving, Chrysostom on the duty of, 
238 

Amantius, chamberlain of Eudoxia, 251 

Ambrose, archbishop of Milan, 4:4 note; 
a layman when consecrated, 60 ; con- 
verts multitudes of women to celi- 
bacy, 65 ; sides with Theodosius, 
149; reply to the appeal of Sym- 
machus, 152-153 ; prohibits feasts in 
the churches, 190 ; his character, 
195; before the royal council, 195; 
refuses to surrender the Portian Basi- 
lica, 196 ; will not recognise the edict, 
197 ; served with an order of banish- 
ment, but refuses to depart, 197 ; de- 
clines the proposal of arbitration, and 
remains master of the field, 198 ; his 
triumph, 198 ; mission to Maximus, 
199 ; letter to Theodosius on, his com- 
manding the bishop of Callinicum to 
restore the Jewish synagogue, 200 ; 
sermon at Milan on the same subject, 
200-201 ; the Emperor succumbs, 
201 ; mission to obtain clemency for 
the Thessalonians, 203 ; withdraws 
from Milan into the country, 204 ; 
exhorts the Emperor to deep repent- 
ance, 204 ; refuses Theodosius admit- 
tance to the cathedral, 204 ; repulses 
Rufinus the minister, 205 ; prescribes 
penance to the Emperor, 206 ; testi- 
mony of Theodosius to his nobility of 
character, 207; strife with' Flavian, 
208 ; receives the Emperor after his 
defeat of Arbogastes, 209 ; admi- 
nisters the Eucharist to Theodosius, 
210 ; urges Nectarius to depose 
G-erontius, 284 

Ammianus Marcellinus on the luxury 
of bishops of great cities, 226 

Ammon, bishop of Laodicea, 277 ; a 
leader of Chrysostom's enemies^ 343 



454 



INDEX. 



AMMCWICS 

Ammonnis, a Nitrian monk, baptises 
Rufinus, 213; one of the 'tall 
brethren,' 306 ; struck by Theophi- 
lus, 307 ; interview with Epipha- 
nius, 318 ; his death, 329 ; prediction 
of persecution to the Church, 330 ; 
buried at ' the Oak,' where he had 
baptised the minister Rufinus, 330 ; 
Theophilus weeps over his death and 
eulogises him, 330 

Anastasius, Pope, anathematises Origen, 
308 

Anathematising denounced by Chry- 
sostom, 140 

Anchorites, the, 64 

Ancyra in Phrygia, the summer re- 
treat of Arcadius, 218 ; spectacle of 
the Emperor's departure to, 220 

Anomcean doctrine, 115-116 ; Chry- 
sostom's homilies against, 121-122 

Anthemius, master of the offices, ap- 
pealed to, to disperse the congre- 
gation at the Baths, 350 ; refuses to 
interfere, but directs Lucius to exhort 
the people to return to the churches, 
350 ; Chrysostom's letter to, on his 
being made prefect and consul, 391 

Anthropomorphites, or Humanisers, 300 ; 
denounced by John, bishop of Jeru- 
salem, 302 ; Theophilus declares him- 
self in their favour, 307 

Anthusa, mother of Chrysostom, 10 ; a 
widow at twenty, 10 ; great love for 
her son, 10; abstains from marrying 
again, 12 ; appeals to Chrysostom not 
to enter into retirement, 27-29 

Antioch, the birthplace of Chrysostom, 
10 ; vices of its Christian inhabitants, 
11 ; Chrysostom resident at, 61 ; per- 
secutions at, 61-62 ; St. Jerome at 
church of, 65 ; monasteries near, 66- 
67 ; monks in the mountainous heights 
near, 70 ; population of, 93; descrip- 
tion of, 94-96 ; ' the great church ' 
at, 95 ; character of the inhabitants, 
96 ; bishop's relations to the city, 
108 ; Chrysostom appointed preacher 
at, 109 ; resides here ten years, 112; 
the cradle of Arianism, 114-115; 
passion of the people for chariot- 
races, 124; influence of the Jews, 
132 ; character of its population, 
143 ; its paganism, 143 ; sedition at, 
157; proclamation of edict levying 
the tribute, 158; sedition at, 158 
-160; dejection of the people, 162; 
arrival of the commissioners from 
the Emperor, 172 ; the city degraded, 
173 ; Chrysostom remonstrates against 
the prevalent discontent, 176-177 ; 



ARABISSUS 
the city is pardoned, 178; joy of the 
people, 178; excitable fe lings of the 
populace, 224 ; Chrysostom's forcible 
removal from the city, 224 

Antioch, Church of, vicissitudes in the, 
17-22 ; the see in the hands of the 
Arians for some time, 18; its Arian 
bishops, 18-20; split into three 
parties, 20 ; its three rival bishops, 
Paulinus, Meletius, and Euzoius, 21 ; 
a fourth added by the Apollinarians, 
21 ; the people favour Meletius, 22 ; 
the schism finally healed by Chry- 
sostom, 22 ; its three sections of 
Meletians, Eustathians, and Arians, 
140 

Antioch, Council of (a.d. 341), Twelfth 
Canon of the, 342 ; swayed by Arian 
influence, 343 ; its object the har- 
assment of Athanasius, 344 ; Chry- 
sostom's enemies stake their whole 
issue on its twelfth canon, 344 ; 
question as to its validity, 344 ; its 
canons pronounced by Innocent in- 
valid, 366 

Antiochus, bishop of Ptolemais, dis- 
courses at Constantinople, 287 ; a 
leader of the faction hostile to Chry- 
sostom, 294 ; plots against the arch- 
bishop after his recall, 342; rage at 
the proposal of Elpidius, 345 ; under- 
takes the responsibility, with Acacius, 
of Chrysostom's deposition, 347, 353; 
urges the Emperor to remove him 
from the city, 353 ; assists in ordain- 
ing Porphyry, 374 

Antiochus Epiphanes, 95 

Antiochus the Great, 132 

Antiphonal singing, 197 note 

Antoninus, bishop of Ephesus, grave 
charges against, 277; flatly denies 
the charges, 279 ; is alarmed when 
the archbishop proposes to visit Asia 
Minor, 279 ; his interest at court 
produces opposition to Chrysostom's 
departure, 279 ; is reconciled to his 
accuser, 280 ; the farce of the enquiry, 
280; his death, 281 

Antonius, a reader, made bishop, 60 

Antony, the Anchorite, 64; wholesome 
saying of, 69 

Apollo, oracle of, at Daphne, 107 

Apostolical constitutions, 59 

Applause of the congregation, 124, 
125; sternly repressed, 172 

Arabianus, bishop, at the assembly at 
Constantinople, 277 

Arabissus, a fortified town near Cucusus, 
400 ; attacked and nearly captured by 
I saurian s, 400 



INDEX. 



455 



ARBOGASTES 
Arbugastes, Yalentinian's general of 
the forces, 208 ; his ambition and 
treachery. 208 ; repulses the first 
attack of Theodosius, 209 ; is over- 
thrown, his army routed, and himself 
slain, 209 ; his children pardoned 
and baptised, 209 
Aivadius, son of Theodosius, 157 ; Ru- 
finus appointed his guardian, 211 ; 
does not oppose the ambition of Ru- 
tiuus, 213 ; Eutropius gains complete 
mastery of his feeble mind after the 
death of Rufinus, 218 ; neglect of his 
empire, 218 ; becomes a mere puppet, 
219 ; his palaces and pageants, 220 ; 
dismisses Eutropius, 259 ; promises 
Chrysostom to respect his minister's 
retreat in the church, 262 ; entreats 
the troops to refrain from violence 
towards Eutropius, 262 : misgivings 
as to beheading his lat^ minister, 
266 : yields to the demands of Ga'inas, 
27<> ; ratifies the deposition of Chry- 
Bostom by the 'Synod of the Oak,' 
330 ; refuses to attend church on 
Christmas-day until the archbishop 
has cleared himself, 343 ; the patri- 
arch's case pleaded before him, 344- 
34o ; orders Chrysostom to be re- 
moved from the church to his palace, 
346; his alarm, 346 ; sends for Aca- 
cias and Antiochus, 347 ; turns a 
deaf ear to the entreaty of the forty 
bishops, 347 ; permits a concourse- of 
Christians at Pempton to bo dis- 
persed, 352 
Archelaus invited Socrates to court, 81 
Arian controversy, the, 17-22 
Arianism at Antioch, 114-115; Chry- 

sostom's homilies against, 116-122 
Arians, the, 53 ; their danger to Chris- 
tianity, 113 ; forbidden by Theodosius 
to hold assemblies, 149 ; stronghold 
of, at Constantinople, in the time of 
Gregory of Jsazianzum, 245 ; molest 
the peace in Chrysostom's time, 246 
Aristides, resistance of, to ambition, 

99 
Arius, probably instructed by Lucian, 

115; his Thalia, 246 
Arsacius elevated to the see of Constan- 
tinople, 359 ; his character, 359 ; per- 
secution of the Johnites, 359 ; his 
death, 371 
Ascension-day, Sunday before, 185 note 
Ascetic life, commencement of, 26 ; re- 
lapse from, 33-31 
Ascetics, youthful association of, 29 ; 
primitive, 63 ; called by Eusebius 



AVARICE 

' earnest persons,' and by Clemens 
Alexaudrinus ' more elect than the 
elect,' 64 
Asia. Church of, disgraceful state of the, 

373 
Asia Minor, Chrysostom desires to 
visit, 279 ; three delegates appointed. 
to visit, 280; the Church of, needs 
a healing hand, 280; Chrysostom 
visits, 282 ; Theophilus "travels 
through, seeking for disaffected 
bishops. 315 
Asterius, count of the East, assists in 
removing Chrysostom from Antioch, 
224 
Aterbius, a pilgrim, applies himself to 
the detection of heresy at Jerusalem, 
300 ; denounces John the bishop, 
Jerome, and Rufinus as Origenists. 
301 
Athanasius. archbishop of Alexandria, 
obscurity of the early years of, 9 ; 
return to Alexandria from exile, 21 ; 
consecrated at an early age, 59 ; ac- 
companied to Rome by monks, 65 ; 
the Twelfth Canon of the Council of 
Antioch aimed against, 343 
Atticus, a presbyter, an opponent of 
Chrysostom, 294 ; elected to the see 
of Constantinople during the arch- 
bishop's banishment, 295, 371 ; ob- 
tains imperial rescripts against the 
clergy and laymen, 372 ; the John- 
ites refuse to hold communion with 
him, 405 ; admits the name of Chry- 
sostom into the cliptychs of the Church 
at Constantinople, 405 
AuL r ustine, St., 43 ; permits sitting 
during the reading of the Acts of the 
Saints, 186 ; on the honour due to 
saints and martyrs, 188; prohibits 
feasts in the churches, 190 ; traits of 
earlier life and baptism, 197-198 ; on 
the discharge of episcopal duties, 
221 ; eulogium on Chrysostom, 402 ; 
comparison with Chrysostom, 448- 
419 
Aurelian, prsetorian prefect, presides 
over the suit instituted against Eu- 
tropius, 266 ; the Empress procures 
his elevation to the consulship, 267 ; 
his surrender demanded by Ga'inas, 
268 ; insulted by Gainas, and after- 
wards delivered up, 268 
Au^elius, bishop of Carthage, 190; re- 
ceives a letter from Chrysostom, 
402 
Auxentius, the Arian bishop, 198 
Avarice, denunciations of, 233 



456 



INDEX, 



EABYLAS 

BABYLAS, the martyr, Chrysostom's 
Look on, 97; his remains taken to 
the grove of Daphne, 106; removed 
hence by Julian, but afterwards 
brought back, 107 
Basil, bishop of Raphanea, 15 ; his 
friendship with Chrysostom, 15 ; his 
line of life the ' true philosophy,' i.e. 
monasticism, 15 ; project for a life of 
seclusion, 27 ; reluctance to be made 
a bishop, 43-44 ; remonstrates with 
Chrysostom, 45 ; parting from Chry- 
sostom on his appointment to a bish- 
opric, 58 
Basil, bishop of Seleucia, 15 
Basil (the great), bishop of Csesarea, 
15; contends against the misconcep- 
tions of baptism, 17 ; sides with 
Theodosius, 149 ; reprobates trading 
near the martyries,' 191 ; qualified 
admiration of Origen's teachings, 
299 
Basiliscus, bishop of Comana, suffered 
martyrdom, 404 ; story of his ap- 
pearing to Chrysostom, 404 
Baths of Constantino, interrupted ser- 
vices carried on at, 348 ; people re- 
fuse to leave, 350 ; scenes of violence 
at, 350 
Bautho, father of Eudoxia, 214 
Benedict, St., 66 ; establishment of his 

monastery, 151 
Benedictines of Caraaldoli, 66 
Bequests made by codicils renounced 

by Theodosius, 201 
Bethlehem, Jerome's monastic establish- 
ment at, 301 
Bishops, mode of electing, 43, 49 ; vio- 
lence at elections of, 50-51 ; age at 
which eligible for, 59-60 ; laymen 
consecrated, 60 ; their high social 
position, 221 ; canvassing and bribery 
at their elections, 222 ; luxurious 
style of living, 226 
Bithynia, Chrysostom conveyed to, 355 
Bosphorus, the, Chrysostom crosses, to 
intercede with Grainas, 268 ; a mes- 
senger sent across to seek for Chry- 
sostom, 335 ; studded with boats on 
the patriarch's return, 335 ; ' the sea 
became a city,' 337 ; its waters crowded 
to welcome the reliques of Chrysostom, 
405 
Botheric, governor of Thessalonica, im- 
prisons a favourite charioteer, 203 ; 
refuses to release him, 203 ; is mor- 
tally wounded, 203 
Briso, Eudoxia' s chamberlain, wounded 
in a street fray, 246 ; the bearer to 
Chrysostom of a letter from the Em- 



CHALCEDON 
press, 335; intercedes for Chrysostom, 
377 

Brison, bishop of Philippopolis, a leader 
of Chrysostom's enemies, 343 

British Isles, 117; reached by Chris- 
tianity, 129 ; evangelised, 248 



CiESAREA, pre-eminence of the see of, 
over that of Jerusalem, 301 ; Chry- 
sostom arrives at, on his exile, 378 ; 
violent scenes at, 379 

Casarius, Chrysostom's letter to, 451 

Csesarius, commissioner to Antioch, 173 ; 
goes to the Emperor to intercede for 
the people, 175 ; his arrival at Con- 
stantinople, 177 ; his errand antici- 
pated, 177 

Csesarius of Aries made reader at the 
age of seven, 24 

Caligula, destruction of Antioch in the 
reign of, 95 

Callinicum, 199; its people destroy a 
Jewish synagogue, 199 ; the bishop 
commanded to restore the building, 
200 ; Ambrose objects to tbis, and 
Theodosius gives way, 200, 201 

Camillas, a champion of Eoman free- 
dom, 252 

Capua, council of Western bishops at, 
207 

Carterius superintends the studies of 
youthful ascetics, 29 

Carthage, Fourth Council of, 24 

Cassianus, John, founder of a monas- 
tery at Marseilles, 65 ; his rules of 
the cloister. 66 ; remains a friend of 
Chrysostom, 291 ; custodian of the 
church treasury at Constantinople, 
357 ; flies to Rome, 366 

Castricia, 267 ; an enemy of Chry- 
sostom, 294, 342 

Catechumens, period of probation for,16 

Celibacy of the clergy, Chrysostom on, 
100; canons of the Council of Nice 
upon, 228 ; ' the ancient tradition of 
the Church' concerning, 228 

Chalcedon, Council of (a.d. 451), 15 ; 
the title of ' Patriarch ' first appears 
in its Acts, 225 note; extends the 
jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Con- 
stantinople, 286 ; grants him equal 
privileges with the Patriarch of Rome, 
286.; decides on the precedence of the 
see of Jerusalem over that of Csesarea, 
301 note 

Chalcedon, ' the Oak' a suburb of, where 
the synod hostile to Chrysostom was 
held, 212 ; a church, monastery, and 
palace built here by Rufinus, 322 



INDEX. 



457 



CHAR ACT BR 
Character, Eastern and Western, com- 
pared, 181 
Chariot-races censured, 124, 234, 235 
Christian morals, Chrjsostorn on the 

state of, 74 
Christian responsibilities, 241 
Christian wife, portrait of a, 239 
Christianity, recognised position of, 11 ; 
partially paganised, 11;' the phi- 
losophy' of, 15,20; imperilled In- 
corrupt ion of morals and faith, 112, 
113; its progress, 129; recognition 
by the empire, 132 ; its humanising 
influence in a heartless age, 182 
Christmas, observance of, 141. 1 13 
Christmas-day, the Emperors attend di- 
vine service in state on, 343 
Christ's equality with the Father, 118- 
122 ; zealous defence of His pure 
divinity, 190 
Chromatins, bishop of Aquileia, sends a 
letter by the Italian deputation, 3G8 ; 
Chrysostom's letters to, 318-349, 401 
Chrysostom, St. John : 

Probable date of his birth, 9 and 

note 
His birthplaco Antioch in Syria, 10 
His parents, 10 
Fathers death, 10 
Early training, 12 

Destined for the legal profession, 12 
Attendance at the lectures of Li- 

banius, 13 
Nascent powers of eloquence, 1 3 
Appellation of Chrysostomos, or the 

'Golden Month,' 13 
Libanius praises his speech in honour 

of the Emperors, 13 
Commences practice as a lawyer, 14 
Disgust with a secular life, 14 
Study of Holy Scripture, 14 
Early friendship with Basil, bishop 

of Raphanea(?), 15 
Forms acquaintance with Meletius, 

bishop of Antioch, 16 
Delay in his baptism, 16 ; alleged 

cause for the delay, 22-23 
Baptised by Meletius, 23 
Becomes for a time an enthusiastic 

ascetic, 23 
His intense piety and love to (rod, 23 
Ordained reader by Meletius, 24 
Project for retiring into seclusion, 27 
Frustrated by his mother's entreaties, 

27-29 
Letters of exhortation to Theodore, 

34-41 
Reluctance to be consecrated a bishop, 

43-44 
His ' pious fraud,' 45 



CHRYSOSTOM 
Chrysostom St. John : 
Dissension with Basil, 46 
Books on the priesthood, 43-59 
Reasons for declining a bishopric, 

57 
Narrow escape from persecution, 62 
Retirement into a monastery, 63 
Exalts at the growth of monasticism 

in Egypt, 66 
Description of the daily life of the 

monks. 70-71 
Admiration for monastic communities, 

72 
Treatises composed during monastic 

life, 73 
Epistle to Demetrius, 74-75 
Epistle to Stelechius, 76 
Treatise addressed ' to the assailants 

of monastic life,' 77-85 
Becomes an ardent ascetic, 86 
Enters a cave near Antioch, 87 
Breakdown of health, and abandon- 
ment of monastic life, 87 
Returns to his home at Antioch, 87 
Epistle to Stagirius, 8S-89 
Ordained a deacon by Meletius, 90 
Congenial duties of the diaconate, 93 
Treatise ' On Virginity,' 97 
Letter to a young widow, 97-100 
Views on marriage and celibacy, 

100-104 
Treatise, 'De S. Babyla contra Ju- 

lianum et Gentiles,' 105-107 
Ordained to the priesthood by Flavian, 
108 
Chrysostom, St. John, as preacher at 
Antioch : 
Inaugural discourse at Antioch, 109- 

112 
Preaches at Antioch for ten years, 

112 
Sermon on bishop Meletius, 113 
Homilies against Arians, 116-122 
Profound acquaintance with Scrip- 
ture, 122 
All argument based upon Scripture, 

122 
Rebukes his hearers for their neglect 
of the celebration of the Eucharist, 
123 ; for applauding his words, 
124; and for their love of the 
circus, 124-126 
Homilies against pagans, 127-130 
Occasional defects of interpretation 

of the Scriptures, 131 
Homilies against Jews and Judaising 

Christians, 132-139 
Homily against anathematising, 140 
Sermon on Christmas-day, 140-142 
Indignation at riotous festivity, 143 



453 



index; 



CHRYSOSTOM 
Chrysostoni St. John, as preacher at 
Antioch : 

Homily on New-year's day, 143-144, 
151 

Rebukes gross and senseless super- 
stitions. 144-145 

Agrees with the Emperor Theodosins, 
149 

Immense efforts after the tumult at 
Antioch, 161 

Encourages the people to hope for 
clemency, 161 

Homilies on the statues, 161-172 

Exhortations to repentance, 163 ; on 
this "world's wealth, 164-165 ; on 
the method of keeping Lent, 165 ; 
on fasting, 166; against rash oaths, 
167 ; on death, 168 : on the signs 
of a Creator. 169-170 

Similes from Nature. 170 

Ethical doctrine, 171 

Praise of the hermits for their courage, 
174-175 

Expostulates with the people on their 
discontent, 176-177 

Thanksgiving for the pardon of An- 
tioch, 178 

Describes the interview between Fla- 
vian and the Emperor, 178-182 

His illness, 185, 192 

Homilies on festivals of saints and 
martyrs, 185-191 

Belief in the intercessory power of 
saints, 186 

Exhorts the people to imitate the 
lives of the martyrs, 188 

Homily on th e Sunday before Ascen- 
sion-day, 192 

Praise of the peasant clergy, 192 

Elected to the see of Constantinople, 
223 

Force and fraud employed to remove 
him from Antioch, 224 
Chrysostom, St. John, as archbishop of 
Constantinople : 

Arrival at Constantinople, 224 

His consecration as archbishop, 225 

The ' sermo enthronisticus,' 225 

Too much the saint of the cloister for 
his new position, 226 

His unpopular reforms, 227 

Denounces ' spiritual sisters,' and 
implores the clergy to liberate 
themselves from these disgraceful 
connections, 229-231 

Exacts rigorous discipline from the 
clergy, 231 

Conducts, with the Empress, a torch- 
light procession on the removal of 
i martyr?' reliques, 231-233 



CHETSOSTOM 
Chrysostom, St. John, as archbishop of 
Constantinople: 

Eulogium on the Empress, 232 

Denunciations of avarice, 233 

Censures the people for their attach- 
ment to chariot-races, 234-235 

Denounces fashionable follies, 236- 
238 

Portravs the character of a Christian 
wife* 239 

Represents to property holders their 
duties, 240 

Dilates on Christian responsibilities, 
241 

Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles, 
241 note 

Indignation at the practice of oath- 
taking, 241-242 

Censures addiction to the pleasures 
of the table, 243 

Character of his flock, 243-244 

Combats the errors of the Novatians 
and Arians. 244-246 

Labours to heal the schism at An- 
tioch, 246-247 

Missionary efforts in Scythia, Syria, 
and Palestine, 247 

Assigns a church at Constantinople 
for the Scythians (or Goths), 248 

Endeavours to extirpate paganism, 
248-249 

Affords protection to Eutropius, 261 

Maintains, when taken before the 
Emperor, the Church's right of 
asylum, 261 

Sermon on the degradation of Eutro- 
pius, 263-265 

Intercedes with Grainas, 268 

Honiily after returning from his in- 
tercession, 268-269 

Contest with Grainas, who desired the 
law prohibiting Arian w i - 
within the city to be abolished, 
270-271 

Proposes to visit Asia Minor, to in- 
vestigate the charges against An- 
toninus, 279 

His visit opposed by the court, 279 

Appoints delegates to proceed to Asia, 
280 

Solicited by the clergy of Ephesus to 
come to them, 281 

Proceeds to Ephesus, and is welcomed 
by the clergy and seventy bishops. 
282 

Proposes Heracleides as bishop of 
Ephesus, who is elected, 2S2 

Holds a synod at Ephesus. and de- 
prive* six simoniacal bishops of 
their sees. 281 



INDEX. 



459 



CHBYSOSTOM 
Chrysostom St. John, as archbishop of 
Constantinople : 

Returning through Bithynia, he de- 
poses Gerontius. 281-2N") 

Extent of his jurisdiction as Patriarch 
of Constantinople, 285-286 

Eeceived -with demonstrations of joy 

on his return, 286 
Dismisses Serenas .rom the city, bnt 

recalls him by command of the 

Empress, 288 
Denounces crimes and follies, and 

becomes unpopular, 289-290 
His friends, 290-291 
Leaders of the hostile faction, 29-1 
Qualified admiration of Origen's 

teaching, 299 
Reception of the Nitrian monks, 310 
Letter to Theophilns, beseeching him 

t<> l>e reconciled with the fugitives. 

311 
Refuses to join in the condemnation 

of Origen and his writings, 313 
The plots of his enemies, 313 
Farewell to Epiphanius, 319 
Irritates the Empress by a sermon 

against the follies of fashionable 

ladies, 319 
Theophilns refuses his hospitality, 

and declines all communication. 

320 
Directed by the court to preside at 

the enquiry at Pera into the con- 
duct of Theophilus, 321 
Declines to judge him out of his pro- 
vince. 321 
- ne at the palace with his bishops, 

323-321 
Summoned to appear before the 

• Synod of the Oak.' 324-32.3 
Indignation of his bishops, and their 

reply to Theophilus, 325 
Letter refusing to attend the synod 

until his declared enemies are 

ejected, 325-326 
Charges laid against him by arch- 
deacon John and Isaac the monk. 

^27-328 - N 

Steadfastly refuses to attend the 

synod, and appeals to a general 

council, 328 
Deposed by the synod, 330 
Deposition ratified by the Emperor, 

and sentenced to banishment, 

330 
Sermon before departing, 331-332 
Bows to the storm, and surrenders 

himself, 333 
Embarks, and is conveved to Hieron, 

333 



CHRYSOSTOM 

Chry<ostom St. John, as archbishop of 
Constantinople: 

Removes to Prameturn, opposite Xi- 
comedia, 334 

Receives an abject letter from the 
Empress, entreating him to return. 
335 

Crosses the Bo-phorus, and refuses at 
first to enter Constantinople until 
acquitted by a general council, 335 

Urged to enter the city, and consents. 
335 

Halts before the Church of the Apos- 
tles, but is borne in by the people, 
336 

Compelled to sit on the throne, and 
pronounce a benediction, 336 

An extempore address, 336-337 

Sermon after recall, in which he ex- 
tols the Empress, 338 

Denounces the ceremony at the erec- 
tion of the image of Eudoxia. 341 

Incurs the resentment of the Em- 
press, 342 

Further plots of his enemies, 342 

Continues to discharge his duties, 
345 

Will not cease to officiate unless com- 
pelled by force, 346 

Removed from the church to his 
palace, 346 

Letter to Innocent I. on the distur- 
bances at Constantinople, 348-349 

His flock, alter many trials, broken 
up, 352 

Attempts made to assassinate him, 
352-353 

Receives the mandate of deposition, 
353 

Farewell to his bishops and dea- 
conesses, 354 

Departure from the Church — ' the 
Angel of the Church went out with 
him,' 354-355 
Chrysostom, St. John, in exile : 

Conveyed to the Bithyoian coast, 355 

Suspected of incendiarism, and loaded 
with chains, 357 

Implores the Emperor to be allowed 
to defend himself and clergy against 
the atrocious charges, 357-358 

Journeys to Nice, 358 

Encourages his suffering friends, 35S 

Cheered by the fortitude and loyalty 
of Olynipias, 362 

Persuades Pentadia to remain at 
Constantinople, to support the af- 
flicted, 363 

Letter to Constantius, missionary 
priest, 377 



460 



INDEX. 



CHRYSOSTOM 

Chrysostom, St. John, in exile: 

Travels from Nice to Csesarea, where 
fanatical monks besiege the house 
in which he is lodged, 378-379 

Falls ill with fever, 379 

Is removed from Caesarea to th£ 
house of Seleucia, who is menaced 
by Pharetrius, 380 

Taken thence, and totters in darkness 
along the Cappadocian mountains, 
380-381 

Monks and nuns meet him on the 
road, and bewail his calamities, 
381 

Cucusus, the place of his exile, is 
reached, 381 

Eeceived with much consideration 
and kindness, 382 

Letters to Olympias from Cucusus, 
383-389 

Letters to friendly bishops and lay- 
men, to Gemellus, and to An- 
themius, 390-391 

Eeceives old friends from Antioch, 
who come to him for guidance, 391 

Letters to clergy and others, 393-39-1 

Influence over the empire in his exile, 
394-395 

Sufferings from the winter cold, 396 

Interest in the mission in Phoenicia, 
397 

Letters to Gerontius and Rufinus the 
Presbyter, 398-399 

Privation, anxiety, and rapid re- 
movals bring on illness, -400 

Letters to the Italian bishops, to 
Chromatins to Innocent, and to 
Aurelius, 400-402 

Suffers less, and thinks God will 
restore him to his position in the 
Church, 403 

His enemies get him removed to 
Pityus, in a desolate country, 403 

Arrives at Comana, in Pontus, 404 

Story of the vision of the martyred 
Basiliscus, 404 

Wishes to remain at the church, but 
is hurried on by his guards, 404 

Is taken ill, and brought back to the 
martyry, where he dies after par- 
taking of the Eucharist, 404 

Honoured after his death, 405 

His reliques brought to Constanti- 
nople, and deposited in the Church 
of the Apostles, 405-406 
Chrysostom, St. John, theological teach- 
ing of: 

Survey of his theological teaching, 
407 

Practical character of his works. 408 



CLAUDIAN 
Chrysostom, St. John, theological teach- 
ing of : 
His natural and forcible language, 409 
On the nature of man, 409-411 
Sin and necessity, 411-412 
Free-will and grace, 412-414 
God's will and mans freedom, 414- 

415 
Co-operation of God's will with man's, 

417 
Divine grace, 417-418 
Nature of the Godhead, 418-420 
Manhood and Godhead in Christ, 

420-421 
The Eedemption, 421-423 
Justification, 423-424 
Faith and good works, 425-426 
The efficacy of prayer, 426 
Baptism, 427-429 
The Holy Eucharist, 429-433 
No trace of confession, purgatory, or 

Mariolatry, 434-436 
No acknowledgment of papal supre- 
macy, 436-437 
Liturgical forms, 437-439 
Character as a commentator, 439-442 
The New Testament a completion of 

the Old, 442 
Variations in the Gospel narratives, 

442-443 
Inspiration of the Bible, 443 
Characteristics as a preacher, 444- 

445 
Personal appearance, 444 
Preservation of his discourses, 445 
Style of language, 446 
Allusions to Greek classical authors, 

446-447 
Depreciation of pagan modes and 

ideas, 447-448 
Compared with St. Augustine, 448- 

449 
His fight in the cause of Christian 

holiness, 449 
Church, the, Chrysostom does not rely 
on the tradition of, 122; its power 
and progress, 129-130 ; claims pre- 
eminence over civil law, 200; tradi- 
tion with regard to clerical celibacy, 
228 ; custom concerning the preach- 
ing of strangers, 235 ; its stability, 
331 ;. its degradation, 374-375 
Claudian, his verses on Stilicho, 213, 
217; his appeal against the consul- 
ship of Eutropius, 252 ; companion of 
Stilicho, 252 note ; sarcasm aimed at 
the adulation of the Byzantines, 253 ; 
dramatic account of Tribigild's meet- 
. mg with his wife. 255 ; his description 
of Leo, 256 



INDEX, 



461 



CLAUDIUS 
Claudius, Antioch shattered in the 

reign of, 95 

Clemens Alexandrinus terms ascetics 
' more elect than the elect,' 64 

Clergy, the, treatment of, by Constan- 
tine and Theodosius, 155 ; Jerome 
on their worldly hospitality, 227 ; 
exempted from curial office by Con- 
stantine, 283 ; those who were curiales 
forbidden to be ordained, 283 

Coenobia, the, founded by Pachomius. 64 

Comana, in Pontus, Chrysostom arrives 
at, 404 ; dies at the martyry outside 
the town, 404 

Commodus, the Olympic games insti- 
tuted in the time of, 96, 106 

Communicants received within the rails 
and close to the altar, 234 and note 

Congregation rebuked by Chrysostom, 
123 ; its applause of Clirysostorn's 
words, 124, 125 ; customary to stand 
whilo the preacher sat, 161 note 

Conscience, tho law of, 171 

Constantia, sister of the Emperor, 18 

Constantine favours tho Arians, 18; do- 
poses the Catholic bishops, 18; com- 
mences building ' the great church ' 
of Antioch, 95 ; statutes concerning 
the Jews, 132 ; exemptions of the 
clergy, 155; his forgiveness of an 
injury, 179 ; right of asylum trans- 
ferred in his time from pagan temples 
to Christian churches, 259 ; exempted 
the clergy from curial office, 283 

Constantinople, vices of the Christian 
population of, 1 1 ; Arian synod at, 
19; tumults at, 33; St. Jerome at 
church of, 65 ; religious riots at, 70 ; 
division into districts, 108; passion 
of the people for chariot-races, 124 ; 
edict of Theodosius, 149 ; surround- 
ing country ravaged by Alaric, 216; 
competition for its see, 222 ; Chry- 
sostom appointed archbishop, 223 ; 
mixture of population, 232 ; its forms 
of error, 246 ; stronghold of Arianism 
in the time of Gregory of Nazianzum, 
245 ; occupied by Gainas and the 
Goths, 270 ; circular to its clergy an- 
nouncing Chrysostom' s deposition, 

329 ; the people, enraged at the sen- 
tence, guard him against abduction, 

330 ; the populace demand the resto- 
ration of the patriarch, 334 ; visited 
by an earthquake, 334 ; sanguinary 
affrays in the streets, 338 ; flight of 
Theophilus from, 339 ; shocking tu- 
mult at St. Sophia on Easter eve, 347; 
its churches deserted during Chry- 
sostom's absence, 348 ; the interrupted 



CYRINUS 
services continued at the Baths, 348 ; 
fresh scenes of violence, 351-352 ; 
fury of the people on discovering the 
removal of Chrysostom, 356 ; the 
cathedral-church and senate- house 
burnt down, 356-357 ; visited by de- 
structive hailstorms, 370 ; coercion 
ineffectual in bringing the people to 
submit to Atticus and his clergy, 372 
Constantinople, Council of (a. d. 381), 
9 note, 15; presided over by Mele- 
tius, 22, 90 ; project for a general 
council after, 149; restricts the juris- 
diction of the archbishop of Constan- 
tinople, 285 ; gave him first rank after 
the bishop of Kome, 286 
Constantius, a missionary in Phoenicia, 
receives a letter from Chrysostom, 
377 
Constantius, a priest, described by Pal- 
ladius, 373 ; the people of Antioch 
desire to make him their bishop, 373; 
Porphyry procures his banishment, 
373 ; escapes to Cyprus, 373 ; follows 
Chrysostom into exile, 382 
Constantius, Emperor, 18 ; deposes Ste- 
phen, bishop of Antioch, 18; sum- 
mons a general council, 19 ; orders 
the creed of Kimini to be signed, 19; 
visits Antioch, 19 ; finishes ' the 
great church' at Antioch, 95; sta- 
tutes concerning the Jews, 132 
Cornelius, bishop of Eome, 50 
Crates resists ambition, 99 
Creator, signs of a, in the universe, 169 
Crito, 80 

Cross, honour paid to the, 129 
Cynegius, prefect of the East, 150 ; en- 
forces the law against informers, 154 ; 
quells the sedition at Alexandria, 
158 
Cyprian on a legitimate ordination, 50 ; 
consecrated bishop when a layman, 
60 
Cyprus, Council of, decree of the, 315 
Cyriacus, bishop of Synnada, accom- 
panies Chrysostom on board the 
vessel, 355 ; detained in chains at 
Bithynia, 357 ; taken to Chalcedon, 
357 ; dismissed, 357 ; a fugitive to 
Eome, 365 ; accompanies the Italian 
deputation, 368; confined in a Persian 
fortress, 370 ; intercedes for Chry- 
sostom, 377 
Cyril, successor of Theophilus, reluctant 

to recognise Chrysostom, 405 
Cyrinus, bishop of Chalcedon, joins 
Chrysostom at Bithynia, 282 ; de- 
nounces the archbishop, 320 ; plots 
against him after his recall, 342 ; 



402 



INDEX. 



cucusus 

urges the Emperor to remove Chry- 
sostom from Constantinople, 353 ; his 
death, 320, 371 
Cucusus, a village in the Tauric range, 
subject to attacks from Isauriaus, 
376 ; selected by Eudoxia as the 
place of Chrysostom's exile, 377 ; 
arrival of the archbishop at, 381 ; 
ravaged by the Isaurians, 397 



DAMASUS contests the see of Eome, 
50 

Damophilus exiled by Theodosius, 
149 

Dante, the position assigned in Paradise 
to Chrysostom by, 449 

Daphne, grove of, 96 ; description of, 
105 ; destruction of its temple, 107 

Deacons, duties of, 91 ; called ' Levites 
of the Christian Church,' 91 ; their 
peculiar office in the early Church, 
92-93 

Death, Chrysostom on, 98, 168 

Decius, persecution of, 64 

Demetrius, bishop of Pessina, Chry- 
sostom's epistle to, 74-75 ; denounces 
the ' Synod of the Oak,' and returns 
to Chrysostom, 329 ; accompanies the 
Italian deputation, 368 ; dies of harsh 
treatment when being conveyed to 
the Egyptian oases, 371 

' De Sacerdotio,' Chrysostom, 43-49 

Diocese, meaning of, 285 note 

Diodorus, influence of, upon Chrysostom 
and Theodore, 29 ; founder of a me- 
thod of Biblical interpretation, 30 
made bishop of Tarsus by Meletius 
30; attacked by Julian, 30; com 
mentary on the Old and New Testa 
ments, 30-31 ; his theology, 31-33 
its rationalistic tendency, 32 ; writings 
condemned by the Fifth (Ecumenical 
Council, 33 ; rational system of con- 
ducting monasteries, 70 

Diogenes, 99 

Dionysius, the tyrant of Sicily, 81 

Dioscorus, a Nitrian monk, one of the 
' tall brethren,' 306 ; made bishop of 
Hermopolis by Theophilus, 306 ; a 
victim of the rage of Theophilus, 
309 ; his death, 329 

Dispensations, teaching of the Old and 
New, 104 

Divination, arts of, 150 

Domitianus, widows and virgins in the 
care of, 393 

Domninus blinded to the preparations 
of Maximus, 199 

Doxology, Arian form of the, 1 8 



EPIPHANIUS 

EASTER-DAY, vast crowds attend 
the church on, 244, 345 

Easter- Eve, a great day for the baptism 
of converts, 346; the vigil on, inter- 
rupted at St. Sophia, 347 

Easter kept according to Jewish calcu- 
lation, 136; this practice condemned 
by the Council of Nice, 137 ; and de- 
nounced by Chrysostom, 137 

Eastern Church, the, acknowledges Me- 
letius, 21 ; the parent of asceticism. 
63 ; the festival of Christmas in, 141 ; 
favourable to clerical celibacy, 228 ; 
finds the teaching of Origen con- 
genial, 299 ; the ' Synod of the Oak ' 
a stain upon, 326 ; appeals to the 
Western Church, 349, 363; not famed 
for missionary enterprise, 399 ; de- 
sirous of communion with the "West, 
405 

Education in monasteries, Chrysostom 
urges the advantage of, 84 

Elpidius, a priest, bribes a slave to as- 
sassinate Chrysostom, 353 

Elpidius, bishop of Laodicea, friendly 
to Chrysostom, 343 ; his adroit pro- 
posal, 345; deposed and imprisoned 
for his attachment to Chrysostom, 
394 ; the archbishop writes thanking 
him for his zeal, 394; restored to his 
see by Alexander, bishop of Antioch, 
394 

Elvira, synod of, enjoins celibacy of the 
clergy, 228 

Emperors, fate of, 98-99 ; half idola- 
trous homage paid to, 340-341 ; 
custom of attending church in state 
on Christmas-day, 343 

Epaminondas not allured by ambition, 
99 

Ephesus, Chrysostom arrives at, 282 ; 
election of a bishop to the see of, 
282 ; synod at, 283 ; worship of Midas 
suppressed at, 285 ; its see occupied 
by a monster of iniquity, 373 

Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis and 
Cyprus, 301 ; visits Jerusalem, and 
accepts the hospitality of Bishop 
John, 302 ; preaches against the doc- 
trines of Origen, 302 ; leaves Jeru- 
salem, and breaks off communion 
with its bishop, 303 ; forcibly ordains 
Paulinian deacon and priest, 303 ; 
receives an apologetic letter from 
Theophilus, 312 ; goes to Constan- 
tinople, irregularly ordains a deacon, 
and refuses the hospitality of Chry- 
sostom, 315 ; his attempt to enter the 
church and denounce the writings of 
Origen prevented by Serapion, 317; 



INDEX. 



4G3 



ESSENES 
his prayers implored by the Engross 
on her son's behalf, 317; interview 
with Amnion and his brethren, 318 ; 
his compunction and departure from 
Constantinople, 318; his death, 318 

Essenes, the, 63 

Eucharist, congregation neglect the ce- 
lebration of the, 123 ; Chrysostom 
censures irreverent conduct at, 142 ; 
character of some of its partakers, 
128 

Eucharistic elements burned at the pil- 
lage of the Nitrian monks, 309 ; pro- 
faned by soldiers at St. Sophia. 348 

Eudoxia, 197; weds Arcadius, 215; 
baptised and educated in the Chris- 
tian faith, 215; Chrysostom's eulo- 
gium of, at the removal of the remains 
of some martyrs, 231-233 ; aims at 
the fall of Eutropius, and makes an 
ally of Chrysostom, 250 ; contributes 
to the support of the churches and 
the relief of the poor, 251 ; profound 
jealousy of the power of Eutropius, 
258 ; relates the minister's insults to 
her to Arcadius, 258 ; remains mis- 
tress of the field after the death of 
Eutropius, 267 ; stands unrivalled in 
the management of the empire, 275 ; 
gives birth to a male heir to the 
throne, 275 ; proclaimed Empress 
under the title of Augusta, 275 ; 
commands Chrysostom to recall Se- 
verian, and admit him to communion, 
288 ; becomes the enemy of Chry- 
sostom, 295 ; accosted by the Nitrian 
monks, and promises that the council 
they desire shall be convened, 314; 
implores the prayers of the monks. 
314 ; asks the prayers of Epiphanius 
on her son's behalf, 317; terrified by 
an earthquake, 335 ; sends a humble 
letter to Chrysostom, entreating him 
to return, 335 ; her image placed in 
front of the cathedral, 341 ; ceremony 
at its erection denounced by Chry- 
sostom, 341 ; her fierce resentment, 
342; will not listen to the entreaty of 
the forty bishops, 347 ; receives a so- 
lemn warning from Paul, bishop of 
Crateia, 347 ; her death, 370 

Eudoxius, bishop of G-ermanicia, seizes 
the see of Antioch, 18 ; made arch- 
bishop of Constantinople, 19 

Eugenius's children pardoned and bap- 
tised, 209 

Eugraphia, 267 ; an enemy of Chry- 
sostom, 294 ; her house the rendez- 
vous of the disaffected, 294 

Eulysius. bishop of Apamea, accom- 



EUTROPIUS 
panies Chrysostom on board the ves- 
sel, 355 ; detained in chains at 
Bithynia, 357; taken to Chalcedon, 
357 ; dismissed, 357 ; a fugitive to 
Rome, 365 ; accompanies the Italian 
deputation, 368 ; imprisoned in 
Arabia, 371 

Eunomians forbidden by Theodosius to 
hold meetings, 149 

Eunomius, an extreme Arian, 115 ; 
founder of the Eunomian or Anomoean 
sect, 115 

Euphronius, Arian bishop of Antioch, 18 

Eusebius, a deacon, seeks an interview 
with Innocent I., 363 

Eusebius, a Nitrian monk, one of the 
' tall brethren,' 306 ; made presbyter 
by Theophilus, 306 

Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia, in- 
structed by Lucian, 115 

Eusebius, bishop of Valentinopolis, pre- 
sents grave charges against Anto- 
ninus, 277; commits the crime he 
has denounced, and is reconciled to 
Antoninus, 280 ; postpones the pro- 
duction of witnesses, 281 ; departs for 
Constantinople, and affects illness, 
281 ; is excommunicated, 281 ; re- 
quests to be re-admitted to com- 
munion with his brethren, 282 

Eusebius, bishop of Vercelli, goes to 
Antioch to heal the division, 21 

Eusebius, of Csesarea, calls ascetics 
' earnest persons,' 64 ; use of the word 
' niartyry,' 186 

Eustathius, bishop of Antioch, deposed 
by Constantine, 18 

Euthymius, a Nitrian monk, one of the 
' tall brethren,' 306 

Eutropius, a reader and Johnite, tor- 
tured to the death, 360 

Eutropius. the chamberlain, 195; frus- 
trates Rufinus's scheme for marry- 
ing his daughter to Arcadius, 214 ; 
strange career and rise, 217; be- 
came the adviser of Arcadius, and 
virtually his master, 218 ; tyrannous 
conduct, 219; abolishes the right of 
asylum in the Church, 219 ; probably 
suggested Chrysostom's election, 223 ; 
scheme for removing Chrysostom 
from Antioch, 224 ; threatens Theo- 
philus for refusing to assist at Chry- 
sostom's ordination, 224-225 ; does 
not find Chrysostom a complaisant 
servant, 250 ; induces the Emperor 
to make him consul, 251 ; adulation 
of the Byzantines at his inauguration, 
253 ; indignation in the West, 253 ; 
treats the rebellion of Tribigild as- a 



464 



INDEX. 



euzoius 

petty insurrection, arid offers him a 
bribe, 256 ; appoints Leo commander 
of the legions, 256 ; his arrogance 
towards the Empress Eudoxia, 258 ; 
degraded by the Emperor, 259 ; seeks 
asylum in the church, 261 ; protected 
by Chrysostom, 261 ; the populace 
demand his death, 261 ; his degrada- 
tion made the subject of a sermon by 
Chrysostom, 263-265 ; secretly quits 
the sanctuary, 265 ; banished to Cy- 
prus, 266 ; accused of treason, re- 
called from Cyprus to Chalcedon, and 
there beheaded, 266 

Euzoius, an associate of Arius, made 
bishop of Autioch, 20 

Evagrius, 30 ; recognised by Ambrose 
as bishop of Antioch, 207 ; sudden 
death, 208 

Evethius, a priest, companion of Chry- 
sostom in his exile, 380 ; takes letters 
to the Italian bishops from Chry- 
sostom, 401 



FASHIONABLE follies censured, 236- 
238 
Easting, Chrysostom on, 165-167 
Flaccilla, daughter of Eudoxia, 258 
Elacilla, the Empress, 155; her hu- 
mility and gratitude, 155; influence 
upon Theodosius, 156 ; her death, 
156 
Flavian, bishop of Antioch, 63 ; elected 
by the Meletians, 91 ; accused of 
perjury, 91 ; ordains Chrysostom to 
the priesthood, 108 ; Chrysostom's 
encomium on, 111; besought by the 
people of Antioch to intercede for 
them after their rioting, 160 ; under- 
takes the mission of mercy, 160; 
Chrysostom is hopeful of his mission, 
163 ; arrives at Constantinople, and 
obtains pardon for Antioch, 177 ; re- 
turns to Antioch in time for the 
Easter celebration, 177 ; reception 
by the people, 178; interview with 
the Emperor, 179-182 ; removes the 
remains of some saints, 189 note ; 
rivalry with Evagrius produces strife 
with Ambrose, 208 ; his death, 373 
Eravitta, a loyal Goth, defeats Gainas 
in several engagements, 273 ; pursuit 
of the enemy, 274 ; made consul, 275 



GAINAS returns with Stilicho's troops, 
216 ; is commanded to compass the 
death of Eufinus, 216; sympathises 
with his relative Tribigild, 255; is 



GERONTIUS 
retained at Constantinople in com- 
mand of the city troops, 256 ; de- 
spatched, after Leo's defeat, to con- 
front Tribigild, 257 ; believes the 
surrender of Eutropius would cause 
Tribigild to become loyal, 258 ; dis- 
dains to be directed by the Empress 
and her lady advisers, and joins his 
forces with those of Tribigild, 267 ; 
menaces Constantinople, 267 ; opens 
negotiations with the Emperor, and 
demands the surrender of three court 
favourites, 268 ; subjects them to in- 
sults and a grim practical jest, 268 ; 
interview with the Emperor, 269 ; 
demands to be made consul and com- 
mander-in-chief, to which the Em- 
peror yields, 269-270 ; desires the 
abolition of the law forbidding Arian 
worship, 270 ; is opposed in this by 
Chrysostom, w T ho debates the ques- 
tion with him, 270-271 ; his rapa- 
city, 271 ; flight from the city, 272 ; 
declared by royal decree a public 
enemy, 272 ; takes to a life of plun- 
der, 273 ; defeated in several engage- 
ments by Eravitta, and a large por- 
tion of his army afterwards drowned 
in crossing the Hellespont, 273 ; re- 
treat towards the Danube, 273 ; final 
'defeat and death, 274 

Gallus Caesar endeavours to reform the 
licentiousness of Daphne, 106 

Gaudentius, Count, appointed to sup- 
press paganism, 150 

Gelasius, Pope, forbad reading the Acts 
of the Saints, 186 

Gemellus, Chrysostom's letter to, 390 

General Council, Chrysostom is willing 
to be judged by, 328 ; demanded by 
- the people of Constantinople, 330, 
334 ; summonses issued, 339 ; coun- 
terfeited, and packed with bishops 
hostile to Chrysostom, 342 ; desired 
by Innocent, 366; suggested by Hono- 
rius to be held at Thessalonica, 368 

George of Laodicea discourses at An- 
tioch, 20 

Germanus, a priest, friend and com- 
panion of Chrysostom, 291 ; custodian 
of the church treasury at Constanti- 
nople, 357 ; flies to Kome, 366 

Gerontius, archbishop of Nicomedia, 
284 ; skill in curing diseases, 284 ; 
deposed by Chrysostom, 285 ; accom- 
panies Theophilus to Constantinople 
to oppose Chrysostom, 320 

Gerontius, a presbyter, anxious to visit 
Cucusus, 397 ; persuaded by Chry- 
sostom to go direct to Phoenicia, 398 



INDEX. 



465 



GERVASIUS 

Gervasius., the martyr, discovery of the 
remains of, 198 

Gibbon, bis character as an historian, 
147 ; his admiration of Chrysostom 
in exile, 395 

Gluttony censured by Chrysostom, 242 

God, nature of, Chrysostom on the, 
116-118 

Godhead. Three Persons of the, Chry- 
sostom on the, 118-122 

Goths, the, 97 ; menace the Danubian 
frontier, 157 ; hear the Bible read in 
their own tongue at Constantinople, 
247 ; revolt under Tribigild, 255 ; 
defeat the army of Leo, 257 ; occupy 
Constantinople, 270 ; numbers perish 
after tin- flight of Gai'nas, 273 

Gratian, the Emperor of the West, 147 ; 
his flight and assassination, ] 48 ; suc- 
ceeded by his brother Valentinian, 148 

Grecian legend, 105 

Greek theology, 408-409 

Gregories, the two, 17, 149 

Gregory of Nazianzum, 90 ; made arch- 
bishop by Theodosius, 149 ; elected 
to the see of Constantinople when it 
was a stronghold of Arianism, 245; 
smoothed the Arian opposition, 245 ; 
letter on the marriage of Olympias, 
292 ; sends a poem to Olympias on 
her duties, 292 : qualified admiration 
of Origen's teachings, 299 
regory of Nyssa, funeral oration of, 
on Meletius, 22; preaches the sermon 
at the baptism of Rutinus, 213 



HADRIAN, 132 
Heaven and hell, Chrysostom on, 
36-38 

Helladius, bishop of Heraelea, conse- 
crates Gerontius, 284 ; a friend of 
Chrysostom, 291 

Hellebicus, commissioner to Antioch, 
173 ; remains at Antioch to keep 
order, 175; receives the rescript of 
pardon for the city, 178 ; received 
everywhere with ovation, 178 

Heracleides, a deacon, elected to the 
see of Ephesus, 282 ; friend of Chry- 
sostom, 290 ; accusations made against 
him by Theophilus and his partisans, 
338 ; his friends and Chrysostom pro- 
test against the illegality of such pro- 
ceedings, 338 

Heretics, edict of Theodosius against, 
149 

Hermione, Theodore wishes to marry, 
34 ; Chrysostom's reference to, 38, 
40 ; abandoned by Theodore, 42 



INNOCENT 

Hermits, intercession of, for the people 
of Antioch, 174 ; Chrysostom's joy at 
their courage, 174-175; their letter 
to Theodosius, 175 

Hesychius, bishop of Pari um, withdraws 
from his appointment as delegate to 
Asia, 280 

Hieron, Chrysostom is conveyed to, 333 
and note 

Hilarion introduces Pachomian monas- 
ticism into Syria, Go 

Hilary of Aries charged with ordaining 
bishops without the people's consent, 
50 

Hippodrome, the, 125 

Holy Saturday, vast crowds assemble in 
the churches on, 345 

Holy Scripture. Chrysostom's intimate 
acquaintance with, 89, 122 ; Arians 
do not deny its authority, 122 ; dis- 
putes as to its interpretation, 122; 
Chrysostom's occasional defects of in- 
terpretation, 131 

Honorius accompanies his father Theo- 
dosius to Rome, 201 ; is sent for to 
Milan by his father, 210; Stilicho 
appointed his guardian, 211 ; receives 
a deputation of Romans on the con- 
sulship of Eutropius, 252 ; gives a 
favourable reply, and nominates 
Mallius Theodorus consul, 253 ; 
convenes an Italian synod to con- 
sider the state of the Church at 
Constantinople, 367 ; suggests to his 
brother Arcadius a General Council 
to be held at Thessalonica, 367 

Hymn of Pachomian monks, 67 



TGNATIUS, effect of the death of, in 

_1_ confirming souls, 189 

lllyria ravaged by Huns, 369 

Infant baptism the ordinary practice of 
the early Church, 16 ; popular reasons 
for delaying, 16, 17 ; the two Grego- 
ries, the great Basil, and Chrysostom 
contend against its misconceptions, 
17 

Innocent I., bishop of Rome, appealed 
to by Chrysostom, 348-349 ; ' is ad- 
vised by Theophilus to cease com- 
munion with Chrysostom, 363 ; four 
bishops bring him Chrysostom's let- 
ter, 363 ; decisive letter to Theo- 
philus, 364 ; receives another letter 
from him, on the minutes of the 
1 Synod of the Oak,' 364 ; sends a 
second letter of reproof to Theophilus, 
364 ; orders prayers and fasts for the 
restoration of concord, 364 ; letter of 



H H 



m 



INDEX. 



ISAAC 

condolence to the clergy of Constan- 
tinople. 365 ; treats the letter of the 
cabal with disdain, 365 ; reply to the 
letter brought by Germanus, 366 ; 
writes to Chrysostom a letter of en- 
couragement and consolation, 366- 
367 : intercedes with Honorius for 
the Church of Constantinople, 367 ; 
remains attached to Chrysostom's 
cause, 374 : approves of the restora- 
tion of Elpidius to his see, 391 ; 
letter from Chrysostom in exile. 402 

Isaac, a Syrian monk, sent to Antioch 
to enquire into Chrysostom's early 
life, 296 ; brings a list of charges 
against the archbishop at the ' Synod 
of the Oak,' 328 ; comes to the arch- 
bishop with a peremptory message, 
329 

Isaurians ravage Syria and Asia Minor, 
369-3 70 ; Chicnsus, the destination of 
Chrysostom, subject to attacks from, 
377; ravage the neighbourhood of 
Csesarea, 379 ; molest the roads round 
Cncusus, 397 ; cause extreme misery 
to the inhabitants of Cueusus and the 
neighbourhood, 399-400 

Isidore, abbot of Pelusium, on the dis- 
charge of episcopal duties, 221 

Isidore, presbyter of Alexandria, a can- 
didate tor the see of Constantinople, | 
222 ; the depositary of an awkward 
secret of Theophilus's, 222: carries 
a petition to Eome, 247 ; despatched 
to Palestine, 304 ; some account of 
his life. 305 ; accepts a charitable 
trust. 305; refuses to surrender the 
money to Theophilus, who charges 
him with a horrible crime. 306 : is 
expelled from the priesthood, and flies 
to the desert of Nitria, 306 

Italian deputation to Arcadius, 368 ; 
maltreated, 368-369; failure ' of its 
mission, 369; returns home. 370 

Italian synod convened by Honorius, 
367; result of its deliberations, 368; i 
memorialise Arcadius on the i 
ration of Chrysostom. 368 



TEALOUSY of wives and husbands. 

J 102 

Jeremy Taylor, quoted, 410 ; as a 
preacher. 444-445 

Jerome quoted, 19 ; promotes the ad- 
vance of monasticism, 65; sides with ' 
Theodosios, 149 ; three years' resi- 
dence at Eome, 202 ; admonition on 
the worldly hospitality of the clergy, 
227 ; description o: Theophilus of 



JULIAN 

Alexandria, 297 ; opinion of Origen's 
merits, 300 ; repudiates Aterbius's 
charge of being an Origenist, 301 ; 
sides with Epiphanius, 303 ; strife 
with John of Jerusalem, 303-304; 
commendation of Theophilus's letter 
on Origenistic errors, 312; styles 
Chrysostom a parricide, 314 

Jerusalem the only lawful place for 
Jewish sacrifices, 137 ; see of, made 
a patriarchate, 301 ; its precedence 
over Ca?sarea, 301 note 

Jevs, Chrysostoni's opposition to, 53 ; 
danger to Christianity, 113; Chry- 
sostom's method of argument against, 
127, 130-131 ; homilies against, 132- 
134 ; their character and influence at 
Antioch. 132-133; statutes concern- 
ing, 1 32 ; ranged on the Arian side 
in dissensions, 133; scenes at their 
festivals, 134: increasing influence 
in Antioch, 136-137; Chrysostom's 
vehemence against, 137-139; their 
sacrifices. 137; the four Captivities 
foretold, 138; revolts under Hadrian 
and Constantine, 138; jeer at the 
tumult at Constantinople. 356 

John, archdeacon of Constantinople, 
cherishes malice against Chrysostom, 
327 ; brings a list of charges against 
him at the ' Synod of the 6ak, : 327 

John, bishop of Jerusalem, an admirer 
of Origen, 300; indignation at the 
accusation of Aterbius, 301 ; his 
pride wounded, 301 : preaches ag 
the Anthropomorphites, and on the 
Christian verities. 302 ; places the 
. monasteries of Bethlehem under an 
interdict, 303 ; strife with Jerome. 304 

John, Count, appointed Comptroller of 
the Eoyal Treasury, 267 ; his sur- 
render demanded by Gainas, 268 ; 
insulted by Gainas, and afterwards 
delivered up, 268 

John, the hermit of the Thebaid, con- 
sulted by Theodosius, 208 

Johnites, followers of Chrysostom, 
prisons filled with, 352 ; persecuted 
by Arsacius and Optatus, 359-360 

Jovinus, Count, commissioned to sup- 
press paganism, 150 

Judaising Christians, 135-136 

Julian, Emperor : his efforts to resusci- 
tate paganism. 11 ; friend of Liba- 
nins, 13 ; recalls all the exiled 
prelates, 21 : his death, 99 : con- 
sulted the oracle of Apollo at Daphne, 
107; attempt to rebuild the Temple 
frustrated, 138; beheaded two soldier 
for being Christians, 187 



INDEX. 



467 



jrPITER 
Jupiter, destruction of the temple of, 

at Apamea, 151 
Justina, the queen-mother, 195 ; her 

flight to Thessalonica, 199 
Justinian, 50 



TREBLE, Rev. John, quoted, 2S6 note 



LAO DICE A made the capital of 
Syria, 173 

' Laura,' a, or street, 61 

Law, the profession of, the avenue to 
distinction, 11 

Lent, how to keep, 165 

Leo appointed to the command of the 
troops sent against Tribigild, 256 ; 
crose a isphorus and pursues 

the enemy to Pamphylia, 256-257 ; 
want of discipline in his army, 257 : 
his camp attacked by night, the troops 
fleeing in disorder, 257 ; is drowned 
in mud, 257 

Leontius, the eunuch, Arian bishop of 
Autioch, 18; tries to conciliate the 
Catholics, IS; instructed by Lucian, 
115 

Leontius, bishop of Ancyra, a leadei of 
Chrysostom's enemies, 343; utters a 
palpable lie, 341; Chrysostom escapes 
him when journeying into exile, 378 

' Let us pray.' in our Liturgy, 92 

s to Olympias, remarks on the, 
389 

Libanius the sophist, 12 ; an eloquent 
defender of paganism, 13; his lectures 
attended by Chrysostom, 13 ; an op- 
ponent of Christianity on principle, 
77 : elegy over the shrine of Apollo, 
107; apology for paganism, 152; at- 
tachment to antiquity, 153; invective 
against the monks, 151; regrets the 
destruction of the pagan temples, 
154 ; before the commissioners at 
Antioch, 173; orations in honour of 
Theodosius and the commissioners, 
178 

'Love-feast,' 190 

Lucian, bishop of Antioch, held doc- 
trines afterwards called Arian, 111; 
presbyter of Antioch, 115 ; teacher 
of Eusebius, Leontius, and probably 
Arius, 115; suffered martyrdom, 101 

Lucifer of Cagliari at Antioch, 21 ; con- 
secrates Paulinus bishop, and in- 
creases the confusion, 21, 90, 207 

Lucius directed by Anthemius to im- 
plore the people to return to the 

H 



MAXIMIN 

churches, 350 ; arraigns the congre- 
gation, but with no effect, 350 ; is 
bribed by Acacius, and commits scenes 
of violence at the Baths, 351 ; waiting 
with troops to compel Chrysostom's 
departure, if need be, 351 



MACEDONIANS forbidden by Theo- 
dosius to hold assemblies, 119 

Macedonius, archbishop of Constanti- 
nople, deposed, 19 

Macedonius the hermit, 171; his appeal 
for the people of Antioch, 171 

Magical arts, decree of Valens against 
the practisers of, 61-62 

Mallius Theodorus nominated consul by 
Honorius, 253 

Manes, error of, 119 

Manichaeans, the, 53; celibacy of, 100 ; 
their danger to Christianity, 113; 
forbidden to hold assemblies, 119 

Marcellina, the example of, converted 
many women to celibacy, 65 

Mareellus. bishop, killed, 151 

Marcia, 267 ; an enemy of Chrysostom, 
294, 312 

>n, error of, 119 

Marcionites, 100; their danger to Chris- 
tianity, 113 

Mariamna, Chrysostom arrives at, 335 

Marriage, Chrysostom on, 100 ; how ar- 
ranged, 101-102; its trials and 
troubles, 102-101 

Martin, St., bishop of Tours, 43 ; founder 
of religious houses, 65 ; followed to 
his grave bv two thousand brethren, 
65 

Martyries, 185-186; trading near, 191 ; 
visited by Arcadius and Eudoxia at 
Easter-tide, 317 

Martyrs, appeal for assistance to, 139; 
churches built to commemorate their 
death, 1S5; their numerous festivals, 
186; Chrysostom's homilies on, 185- 
191 ; St. Augustine on the honour to 
be paid to them, 189 ; increasing ve- 
neration to them in the Church, 189 ; 
discovery of skeletons, and. cures 
effected, 198; procession conducted 
by Chrysostom and the Empress, on 
the removal of some reliques, 231-233 

Maruthas, bishop of Martyropolis, in 
Persia, an active missionary, 391- 
392, and note 

Maruthas, bishop of Mesopotamia, acci- 
dentally causes the death of Cyrinus, 
320 

Maximian, persecution of, 59 

Maximin, persecution of, 61 
h 2 



468 



INDEX. 



MAXEMUS 
Maximus, bishop of Seleucia, adopts a 

secluded life, 29 
Maximus the usurper's progress arrested 
by Theodosius, 148; his disloyalty, 
199; passage of the Alps, 199; de- 
feated by Theodosius, 199; beheaded. 
199 
Meletius, bishop of Antioeh, 16; trans- 
lated from Sebaste in Armenia to 
Antioeh, 1 9 ; preaches by command of 
Constantius on the text, ' The Lord 
possessed me,' 20 ; dissents from the 
Ariaris, and is banished to Meliteue, 
20; recalled by Julian, 21; banished 
again in a.d. 367, and afterwards by 
the Emperor Valens, 22, 43 ; returns 
after the death of Valens (a.d. 378), 
22 ; presided over the Council of 
Constantinople (a.d. 381), 22 ; died 
during its session, 22 ; his funeral 
oration, 22 ; one of his last acts, 90 ; 
Chrysostom's encomium, 113; invo- 
cation to, 114 
Milan, astonishment of the people of, at 

Theodosius's act of treachery, 204 
Milman, Dean, quoted, 134 
Moduarius, a deacon, a messenger to 

Chrjsostom in exile, 392 
Monasteries of Bethlehem placed under 
an interdict by John of Jerusalem, 
303 
Monasteries, tranquillity of, 84 ; educa- 
tion at, 84 
Monasticism, 57 ; rise of, 63 ; rule of 
Pachomius, 64 ; introduced into Syria 
by Hilarion, 65 ; promoted in the 
West by St. Jerome, 65 ; Eastern and 
"Western, 69-70 ; St. Chrysostom's ad- 
miration for, 72 ; contemplative form 
of, 72 ; enemies of, 77 ; its necessity, 
79 ; called ' the true philosophy,' 79 ; 
considered the highest form of life. 
86 
Monica, the mother of St. Augustine, 

197 
Monks, calm life of the, 56; custom of 
reading aloud during dinner, 67 note; 
interfere in political contests, 69 ; 
Eastern and Western monks, 69 ; daily 
life, 71 ; reception of the Eucharist, 
70-71 note ; persecution of, by Valens, 
76-77; exempt from love, avarice, 
&c, 80 ; powerful influence of, 81 ; 
fanatical fury, 150; Libanius's in- 
vective against, 154 
Monks of Nitria, 306 ; the ' tall brethren' 
persecuted by Theophilus, 307-309 ; 
they fly to Palestine, and find a new 
home at Scythopolis, 309 ; the malice 
of their persecutor follows them here, 



OLTMPIAS 
310 ; they embark for Constantinople, 
and reach that city fifty in number, 
310 ; they appeal to Chrysostom. who 
receives them with kindness, but acts 
cautiously, 310; resolve to appeal to 
the civil powers, 313 ; draw up docu- 
ments of charges against Theophilus 
and their accusers, 313 ; accost the 
Empress, who promises the council 
they desire shall be called, 314: in- 
terview with Epiphanius, 318; Theo- 
philus reconciled with ' the tall 
brethren,' 329 
Monks, Pachomian, number of, 66 ; 
period of probation, 67 ; dress and 
habits, 67 ; division into classes, 68 



"VTEBEIDIUS, prefect of Constanti- 

1M nople, husband of Olympias, 292 ; 
his death two years after marriage, 
292 

Nebridius, husband of Salvina, 291 

Nectarms, bishop of Constantinople, 
50 ; his subservience to the Emperor, 
206-207; his death, 221; had de- 
sired to make Arsacius bishop of 
Tarsus, 359 

Neocaesarea, Council of (about a.d. 320), 
59 

Nestorius consecrated a bishop when a 
layman, 60 

New-Year's day a riotous festival, 143 

Nice, Council of (a.d. 327), 17, 59 ; the 
custom of keeping Easter according 
to Jewish calculation condemned, 137 ; 
proposal of clerical celibacy defeated 
by Paphuntius, 228 ; prohibition as 
to unmarried clergy living with 
women other than mother, sister, or 
aunt, 229 ; canons of, on ecclesiastical 
affairs being judged in their own 
province, 321, 325, 366 

Nicolaus, a priest, supplies money and 
men to the Phoenician mission, 397 

Nilus, an anchorite, addresses letters of 
warning to Arcadius, 370 

Novatians, pretension of the, to purity 
of doctrine and life, 244 ; refuse re- 
admission of penitents, 245 ; incur 
Chrysostom's indignation, 245 



OATHS, the taking of, excites Chry- 
sostom's indignation, 241—242 
(Ecumenical Council, the Fifth (a.d. 

553), 33 
Olympias, the deaconess, friend of Chry- 
sostom, 291 ; early life, 292 ; married 
to Nebridius, 292 ; death of her hus- 



INDEX. 



469 



OLYMPIC 
band, 292 ; devotes herself to the in- 
terests of the Church, 292 ; attends 
to the wants of the Nitrian monks, 
310 ; Chrysostom' s farewell to, 354 ; 
accused of incendiarism, 361 ; conduct 
before Optatus, 361 ; refuses commu- 
nion with Arsacius, 361 : is fined, 
and retires to Cyzieus, 362 ; inter- 
cedes for Chrysostom, 377 ; the arch- 
bishop's letters to her from Cucusus, 
383-389 

Olympic games instituted by Commo- 
dus at Autioch, 96, 106 

Optatus, a pagan, succeeds Studius as 
prefect at Constantinople, 357 ; per- 
secutes Chrysostom's followers, 357, 
360 ; fines Olympias, 361 

Origen, allegorical interpretations of, 
31 ; his voluminous writings, and the 
controversy upon his teachings, 298- 
300 ; the Egyptian Church proud of 
him, 299 

Orontes, the, 18, 30, 62, 94, 96, 105, 
106 

Ostrogoths, a colony of, established in 
Phrygia and Lydia, 147 



PACHOMIUS, the Benedict of the 
East, 64 ; his practice of asceticism, 
66 ; his rule acknowledged by three 
thousand monks during his lifetime, 
and fifty thousand after his death, 
66 

Pagan temples, edict for the destruction 
of, 248 

Paganism, Chrysostom's method of 
argument and homily against, 127— 
130 ; Theodosius's laws against, 150- 
151 ; its hold upon the people, 151 ; 
its apologists, 152 ; prevalent in Phoe- 
nicia, 249 ; not extirpated in the fifth 
century, 399 

Pagans, conversion of, 183-184 

Palladius, bishop of Hellenopolis, visits 
the Egyptian monasteries, 68 ; his 
narrative of events, 276 ; a delegate 
on the affair of Antoninus, 280 ; 
joins Chrysostom at Bithynia, 282 ; 
on Chrysostom's consistency, 289 ; 
account of Chrysostom and his 
bishops before being summoned to 
' the Synod of the Oak,' 323 ; descrip- 
tion of Arsacius, 359 ; a fugitive to 
Pome, 365 ; accompanies the Italian 
deputation, 368 ; imprisoned near 
Ethiopia, 371 ; description of Con- 
stantius the priest, 373 

Pamphvlia, Tribigild awaits Leo at, 
256 



PHILIPPOPOLIS 

Pansophius, bishop of Pissida, desired 
to 'offer the gifts,' 278 

Pansophius elected to the see of Mco- 
media, 285 

Paphuntius, an Egyptian monk, defeats 
the proposal of clerical celibacy at 
the council of Nice, 228 

Parents, worldliness of, reproved by 
Chrysostom, 83 

Paschal letter, the, 300 note 

Paternus, an emissary from the cabal 
to Innocent, 365 

Patriarch, the title, 225 and note 

Patricius, the notary, conveys to Chry- 
sostom the mandate of his deposition, 
353 

Paul, bishop of Crateia, solemnly warns 
Eudoxia, 347 

Paul, bishop of Heraclea, deputed to 
conciliate Eusebms, 278 ; joins Chry- 
sostom at Bithynia, 282 

Paul, bishop of Tibur, interrupted while 
consecrating Ursicinus, 50 

Paul of Samosata deposed from the see 
of Antioch, 114; his Sabellian doc- 
trines, 114; originally a sophist, and 
unfitted to build up a system, 114 

Paul the Anchorite retires to the Egyp- 
tian Thebaid during the persecution 
of Decius, 64 

Paulinian forcibly ordained deacon and 
priest by Epiphanius, 303 

Paulinus consecrated bishop by Lucifer 
of Cagliari, 21 ; recognised by Am- 
brose as bishop of Antioch, 207 

Peanius praised for his loyal zeal, 393 

Peasant clergy, Chrysostom's praise of, 
192-193; simplicity of their wives, 
193 

Peloponnesus ravaged by Alaric, 218 

Pempton, congregation at, dispersed, 
352 

Pentadia, wife of Timasius, friend of 
Chrysostom, 291 ; the archbishop's 
farewell to, 354 ; imprisoned, and 
charged with incendiarism, 362 ; pro- 
tests her innocence and silences her 
enemies, 362 ; is persuaded by Chry- 
sostom to remain at Constantinople, 
363 

Persecution intensifies attachment to 
the Church, 372 

Peter, a priest, the bearer of a letter 

from Theophilus to Innocent, 364 
Pharetrius, bishop of Csesarea, does not 
greet Chrysostom on his journey, 
379 ; his envy of the exile, 379 ; 
menaces Seleucia, at whose house 
Chrysostom is lodged, 380 
Philippopolis, Arian Council of, 18 



470 



DsDEX. 



PHILOSOPHERS 

' Philosophers ' of Antioch, cowardice 
of, 175 ; peasant clergy more than a 
match for, 193 

Phoenicia, mission in, 397-399 ; pagan 
resistance to the mission, 398 

Phrygia overrun by Tribigild, 256 

Pityus, on the Euxine, Chrysostom to 
be removed to, 403 

Placidia, sister of Honorius, 210 

Plato, dialogues of, 58 ; compared with 
Dionysius the Tyrant, 81 ; Chry- 
sostom on the teaching of, 447-448 

Polycarp, bishop, removal of his re- 
mains, 187 

Porphyry, a priest, procures the banish- 
ment of Constantius, 373 ; imprisons 
some of the clergy of Antioch, 373 ; 
enters the church, and with closed 
doors is hurriedly ordained bishop of 
Antioch by Acaeius, Severian, and 
Antiochus, 374; is threatened by the 
populace, and protected by troops, 
374 

Porphyry, bishop of Gaza, urges the 
destruction of pagan temples, 248 

Preaching, Chrysostom's remarks on, 
54-56 

Priesthood, the, Chrysostom's books on, 
43-58 ; probable date of writing, 59 ; 
age at which eligible for, 59-60 

Priestly office, dignity, difficulty, and 
danger of, 46-48; qualifications for, 
53 

Priscillianists, the, ruthlessly perse- 
cuted by Maximus, 199 

Prisoners, custom of releasing, 180 and 
note 

Procla, Chrysostom's farewell to, 354 

Proclus, friend of Chrysostom, 290 ; ele- 
vated to the see of Constantinople, 
405 ; gains the consent of the Emperor 
to transport Chrysostom's remains to 
the city, 405 

Procopius, uncle and guardian of 
Olympias, 292 

Promotus assassinated by order of Eu- 
finus, 214 

Property holders, duties of, 240 

Protasius, discovery of the reliques of, 
198 

Ptolemy Philadelphia deposits the 
Septuagint in the temple of Serapis, 
135 

Pulcheria, daughter of Eudoxia, 258 

Pusey, Dr., quoted, 433, 436 

EAVENXA, Honorius at, 367 ; court 
of, not powerful enough to enforce 
the convocation of a general council, 
374 



EUFIXUS 

Eeader in the Church, office of, 24 ; 
ceremony of ordination to, 24 

Eeliques, importance attached to, 399 

Eepentance, Chrysostom on, 36 

Ehadagaisus covets Eome, 374 

Ehemigius of Eheims made bishop at 
the age of twenty-two, 59 

Eight of asylum in the Church 
abolished by Eutropius, 219; trans- 
ferred from pagan temples, 259 ; 
sought by Eutropius, 261 ; main- 
tained by Chrysostom, 261 

Eimini, the creed of, 19, 196 

Eoman Catholic countries, abuse of 
saints' days in, 191 

Eome, bishop of, growing tendency of 
Christendom to appeal to, 349 ; no 
jealousy entertained by Chrysostom 
of him, 349 

Eome, contest for the see of, 50 ; per- 
secutions at, 62 ; St. Jerome at, 65 ; 
division into districts, 108; love of 
the people for chariot-races, 124; 
triumphal entry of Theodosius, 202 ; 
its mixed population, 203 ; deputa- 
tion of the inhabitants to Stilicho 
and Honorius against the consulship 
of Eutropius, 252 ; arrival of fugi- 
tives from Constantinople, 365-366 ; 
efforts of Alaric to conquer. 374 

Eufinus, a presbyter, sent to Phoenicia 
to restore peace, 398; Chrysostom's 
letter to, 398-399 

Eufinus, minister of Theodosius, 195 ; 
his view of the sedition at Thessa- 
lonica, 203 ; endeavours to console 
Theodosius, 205 ; seeks an interview 
with Ambrose, but is repulsed, 205 ; 
appointed guardian to Arcadius, and 
regent of the East, 211; some ac- 
count of his life, 211-212 ; his ' ac- 
cursed thirst ' for gain, and his extor- 
tions, 212; display of piety, 212; 
builds a monastery and church at 
' the Oak,' and is baptised therein, 
213; surrounds himself with a power- 
ful party, 213; jealousy of Stilicho, 
214 ; scheme to marry his daughter 
to Arcadius frustrated, 214; villan- 
ous plot of overrunning the country 
with Huns, Goths, &c, 215-216 ; his 
death just when he had attained the 
height of his ambition, 216 

Eufinus, monk of Aquileia, a warm 
admirer of Origen, 300 ; is accused 
of being an Origenist by Aterbius, 
and refuses to defend himself, 301 ; 
sides with Bishop John of Jerusalem, 
303 



INDEX. 



471 



SABELLIANS 
QABELLIANS, the, 53 ; their danger 

IO to Christianity, 113 

Sabiniana, the deaconess, follows Chry- 

Bostom into exile, 382 
Saints' days, abuse of, 190, 191 
Saints, the Old Testament, 89, 104; 
growth of devotion to, 113; appeal 
for assistance to, 139 ; their festivals 
grown numerous, 186 ; special days 
of commemoration, 1S6 ; character of 
the festivals. ISO ; I' or Pas- 

sions, 180 and nott : Chrysostom's 
belief in their intercessory power, 
186 ; feeling in the Church in r 
to their invocation, 187 : popular 
faith in the miraculous power of their 
remains, ISO; pilgrimages to their 
tombs, 189 ; relics removed by 
Flavian, 189, note 
Salustius, a priest, rebuked by Chry- 

sostom, 360, 393 
Salvina, daughter of Grildo, friend of 
Chrysostom, 291 ; the archbishop's 
farewell to, 354 

tens, the nomadic, 65 
Sardica, Council of (a.d. 342), IS ; (a.d. 
343-3 14), 59 ; repudiates the Twelfth 
Canon of the Council of Antioch, 343, 
366 
Saturninus, husband of Castricia : his 
surrender demanded by Gainas, 268; 
insulted by Grai'nas, and afterwards 
delivered up, 268 
Savile, Sir Henry : his edition of Chry- 
sostom's works. 9 
Savonarola, character of the people 
preached to by, 213 ; compared with 
Chrysostom, 444 
Schism of Antioch, 21 
Secundus, father of Chrysostom, 10 ; 

his death, 10 
Seleucia lodges Cluysostom at her 
house, 380 ; is threatened by Phare- 
trius, 380 
Seleucus, Count, father of Olympias, 292 
Septuagint, the, 135 
Serapion, archdeacon, encourages Chry- 
sostom in his severity towards the 
clergy, 231 ; his dislike of and dis- 
courtesy to Sever ian, 288 ; remains 
Chrys stom's friend, 291; exclama- 
tion on the teaching of Theophilus, 
300 ; summoned before the ' Synod 
of the Oak.' 325 ; now bishop of 
Heraclea, scourged and exiled, 361 ; 
seeks shelter with Gothic monks, 392 
Serapis, the temple of, Septuagint de- 
posited at, 135; silver image of, at 
Alexandria, destroyed, 151 
Serena, wife of Stilicho, 210 



STILICHO 
Severian, bishop of Gabala, deputed 
to act for Chrysostom during his 
absence, 282; endeavours to under- 
mine the archbishop's influence, 287 ; 
his efforts to win admiration, 287 ; 
irritation with Serapion's discourtesv, 
; expelled from Constantinople 
by Chrysostom, but recalled by com- 
mand of Eudoxia, 288 ; becomes a 
leader of the faction hostile to Chry- 
sostom, 294 ; extols the deposition of 
the patriarch, 334 ; again plotting 
against him after his recall, 342 ; 
urges the Emperor to remove Chry- 
sostom from the city, 353 ; assists in 
secretly ordaining Porphyry, 374 
Se\-< rus, Emperor Alexander: his ad- 
7i Oration of the mode of electing 
bishops, 50 
Shakespere quoted, 99 note ; 168 note 
Siciunius, the Novatian bishop, writes 
against Chrysostom, 245 ; admired 
by Socrates, 245 note 
Silk, the use of, 236 and note 
Simeon Stylites on his pillar, 65 ; a 

caricature of the anchorite, 70 
Siricius, Pope, decree of, on celibacy of 

the clergy, 228 
Socrates, 80; invited by Archelaus to 
court, 81 ; resists the allurements 
of ambition, 99 
Socrates, historian, terms dedicatory 
churches ' martyries,' 185; says the 
treatises of Chrysostom on ' spiritual 
sisters ' were composed during his 
diaconate, 229 ; account of the pursuit 
of Gainas, 274 ; stories of Maruthas, 
392 note 
Sozomen on the dress of Pachomian 
monks, 67 ; his account of the pur- 
suit of Gainas, 2~4 
Spiritual agency, 87-88 
' Spiritual sisters' of priests, 229 
Stagirius, excessive austerities of, 87 ; 
their effect, 87 ; consoled by Chry- 
sostom, SO 
Stanley, Dean, quoted, 43 
Stelechius, Chrysostom's book addressed 

to, 73, 76 
Stephen, bishop of Antioch, president 
of the Arian Council of Philippopolis, 
18 ; deposed by the Emperor Con- 
stantius, 18 
Stilicho, 195; Theodosius commends to 
him Honorius and the West, 211 ; 
likened by Claudian to Scipio, 213; 
Honorius betrothed to his daughter, 
213 ; advances against Alaric, but is 
prevented from attacking him by a 
message from Constantinople, 2X6 ; 



472 



D^DEX. 



STRABO 

sends back his troops under Ga'fnas, 
216 ; again hastens to attack Alaric, 
but hears that he is commander-in- 
chief of the forces of the East, 219 ; 
receives a deputation of Eomans on 
the consulship of Eutropius, 252 ; 
rumours of his march to the East, 
258 ; efforts to restrain Alaric and 
Rhadagaisus, 37* 

Strabo's description of Daphne, 106 

Superstitions, description of, 144; re- 
buked by Chrysostom, 144-145 

Swearing, admonition against, 167 

Symmachus, his apology for paganism, 
152; eloquent appeal for the reten- 
tion of the statue of Victory, 152 ; 
his character, 152 note ; Ambrose's 
reply to his appeal, 152-153 ; obtains 
a professional chair for St. Augustine, 
197 ; cordially received by Theodosius, 
202 

Syncletius, bishop of Trajanopolis, a 
delegate on the affair of Antoninus, 
280 

1 Synod of the Oak,' 322 ; Chrysostom 
summoned to the, 324 ; not an- (Ecu- 
menical Council, 326 ; its display of 
formalities, 326 ; the archbishop re- 
fuses to attend, and is deposed, 328- 
329 ; its sentence ratified by the 
Emperor, 330 ; its proceedings de- 
clared illegal, 339 

Syria : Antioch degraded, and Laodicea 
made its capital, 173 ; Theophihis 
travels through, bringing disaffected 
bishops to Constantinople, 315; over- 
run by Isaurians, 370 

Syrus, an old ascetic, 86 

£ HpALL brethren ' persecuted by Theo- 
X philus, 309 ; their dwellings pil- 
laged, 309 ; fly to Palestine, 309 ; 
thence to Constantinople, 310 ; Theo- 
philus is reconciled to them, 329 

Temple, the only lawful place to offer 
sacrifices, 137 note ; Julian com- 
mands its restoration, 137 note; 
failure to rebuild, 138 

Tertullian, saying of, 185 

Thalia, the, of Arms, 246 

Thebaid, the Egyptian, 64 ; Pachomius 
a native of the, 66 

Theodore, bishop of Mopsuestia, 9 ; 
joins an ascetic brotherhood, 29 ; 
returns to a worldly life, 33-34 ; let- 
ters of lamentation from Chrysostom, 
34-41 ; returns again to the brother- 
hood, 41-42 ; made bishop of Mopsu- 
estia (a.d. 394), 42 ; his character, 42 



THEODOSIUS 

Theodore of Tyana, friendly to Chry- 
sostom, 343 ; quits Constantinople on 
seeing the unfair construction of the 
council, 343 

Theodoret's story of the meeting of 
G-ainas and Chrysostom, 274 ; on the 
jurisdiction of Chrysostom, 286 ; on 
idolatry in Phoenicia, 399 

Theodoras executed, 61, 98 

Theodosia, sister of Amphilocius, and 
instructress of Olympias, 292 

Theodosius on amicable terms with 
Libanius, 13 ; his defeats of the 
Goths, 97 ; deservedly called ' the 
Great,' 146 ; his services against 
Scots and Saxons, Moors and Goths, 
146 ; disgraced, and retires to Spain, 
146 ; recalled, and made Emperor, 
147; his character, 147; militar}^ 
achievements, 147 ; a Christian, 148 ; 
efforts to establish a uniform type of 
religion, 148 ; his baptism, 148 ; 
solemn declaration of faith, 148 ; 
makes Gregory of Mazianzum bishop, 
149 ; project for a general council, 
149 ; edict against heretics, 149 ; 
forbids the practice of divina- 
tion, 150 ; laws against Pagans, 150- 
151 ; his impartiality, 154-155; his 
wife Flacilla, 155-156 ; choleric tem- 
per, 156; pardons Antioch after the 
tumult, 1 78 ; interview with Flavian, 
1 78-182 ; victory over Maximus, 199 ; 
generosity to his enemies, 199; com- 
mands the bishop of Callinicum to 
rebuild the Jewish synagogue, 200 ; 
remonstrance of Ambrose, 200-201 ; 
the order annulled, 201 ; triumphal 
entry into Eome, 201 ; two popular 
enactments, 201-202 ; abstains from 
interfering in religious debates, 202 ; 
resentment at the sedition of Thes- 
salonica, 203 ; barbarous act of fero- 
city, 204 ; confronted by Ambrose, 
and refused admittance to the cathe- 
dral, 204 ; exhorted to deep repent- 
ance, 204 ; his penance, 205-206 ; 
forbidden to sit with the clergy 
during the celebration, 206 ; collects 
a huge force, and solicits the favour 
of heaven, 208-209 ; arrives near the 
scena of his former victory, 209 ; 
assaults Arbogastes, but is repulsed, 
2Q9 ; his vision, 209 ; rallies his 
army, and completely defeats the 
enemy, 209 ; received at Milan with 
transports of joy, 209 ; free pardon 
granted to the Milanese who had re- 
volted, 209 ; his health gives way, 
210 ; receives the Eucharist at the 



INDEX. 



/ 6 



THEODOSIUS 
hands of Ambrose, 210 ; beseeches 
the Western bishops to acknowledge 
Flavian, 210 ; implores the pagan 
Roman senators to become Christians, 
210 ; last appearances in public, 210 ; 
his death, 210 ; his law on the right 
of asylum, 260 ; conduct towards 
Olympias, 293-294 vote 

Theodosius II., attacked by an alarming 
illness, 317; suppresses the pagan 
homage paid to emperors, 341 ; con- 
sents to Chrysostom's reliques being 
brought to Constantinople, 40.5 ; im- 
plores forgiveness for his parents' 
wrongs to the saint, 406 

Theodosius the elder, 146 ; executed at 
Carthage, 146 note ; his statue de- 
stroyed by the mob at Antioch, 159— 
160 

Theophilus, a priest, rebuked by Chry- 
sostom, 360, 393 

Theophilus, archbishop of Alexandria, 
appointed arbitrator between Flavian 
and Evagrius, 207 ; pushes the claims 
of Isidore for the see of Constanti- 
nople, 222 ; refuses to take part in 
Chrysostom's ordination \intil threat- 
ened by Eutropius, 224-225 ; his op- 
position is silenced, and he assists in 
the consecratiou, 225 ; joins Chry- 
sostom in urging the recognition of 
Flavian, 247; becomes the chief of 
Chrysostom's foes, 296 ; his character, 
296 r 297 ; earnest defender of the 
teaching of Origen, 299 ; made arbi- 
trator between Jerome and John of 
Jerusalem, 304 ; his letter intended 
for John is delivered to Vicentius, 
304 ; changes sides, 305 ; brings a 
horrible charge against Isidore, who 
is ejected from the ministry, 306 ; 
persecutes the ' tall brethren,' 307- 
309 ; his malice follows the Nitrian 
monks to Palestine, 310 ; schemes for 
the overthrow of Chrysostom, 311 ; 
apologetic letter to Epiphanius, 312 ; 
writes a sharp complaint to Chry- 
sostom, 312 ; summoned to Constanti- 
nople to defend his conduct towards 
the Nitrian monks, 314; arrival at 
the city with twenty- eight bishops, 
319 ; declines the hospitality of 
Chrysostom, 320 ; resides at Pera, in 
a house of the Emperor's, 320 ; re- 
fuses all communication with the 
archbishop, 320 ; his house the resort 
of the disaffected, 321 ; bribes to the 
city, 321 ; draws up a list of accusa- 
tions against Chrysostom, 321 ; holds 
a synod at ' the Oak,' and summons 



TRIBI01LD 
the archbishop to appear, 322 ; after 
his object is attained, is reconciled to 
the ' tall brethren,' 329 ; arrives at 
Constantinople with a large retinue, 
and restores the worthless clergy, 
334 ; remains in the city after the 
recall of Chrysostom, 339 ; his flight 
when summonses were issued for a 
general council, 339 ; excuses himself 
from attending the council, 339 ; in- 
vited by Chrysostom's enemies again 
to visit Constantinople, 342 ; declines, 
and sends three ' pitiful bishops,' 342 ; 
his letter to Pope Innocent received 
with displeasure, 363 ; reproved by 
Innocent, 364 

Theotecnus brings to Innocent a letter 
from twenty-five bishops, 364 

Theotimus, a Goth, bishop of Tomis, at 
Constantinople, 277 ; a determined 
opponent of Epiphanius, 316 ; called 
by the Huns 'the god of the Chris- 
tians,' 316 ; denounces the unseemly 
condemnation of the works of Origen, 
316 

Therapeutae, the, 63 

Therasius: Chrysostom addresses a let- 
ter to the widow of, 97 

Thermopylae, pass of, violated by Alaric, 
218 

Thessalonica, sedition at, 203 ; its Chris- 
tian population, 203 ; failure of the 
mission of Ambrose to obtain cle- 
mency, 203 ; barbarous massacre of 
7,000 inhabitants, 204 

Thrace, Flacilla dies at, 156; overrun 
by Alaric, 216; ravaged by Grainas, 
273 ; ravaged by Huns, 369 

Tiberias, Patriarch of, 132 

Tiberius restricted the right of asylum, 
259 

Tigrius summoned before the ' Synod of 
the Oak,' 325 ; scourged, and put on 
the rack, 360 ; survives, and is ba- 
nished to Mesopotamia, 360 

Tillemont's opinion of Theodore, 42 
note ; floating synod a.t Constanti- 
nople, 277 note 

Tomis, a market of G-oths and Huns, 
316 

Tradition, Chrysostom's arguments not 
based on, 122 

Trajan, Antioch nearly destroyed in the 
reign of, 95 

Tranquillus, a friend of Chrysostom, 
343 

Tribigild, the Ostrogoth, solicits promo- 
tion for himself and more pay for his 
soldiers, 254 ; his suit coldly dis- 
missed by the Emperor's minister, 



I I 



474 



INDEX. 



TRINITY 
254 ; returns home, and resolves to 
cast off allegiance to the empire, 255 ; 
overruns Phrygia, and captures some 
fortified towns, 256 ; refuses to treat 
with Eutropius, 256 ; his army re- 
treats to Pamphylia, where he awaits 
Leo, 256 ; swoops down upon his 
prey at night, scattering Leo's army, 
257 ; his forces joined with those of 
G-ainas, 267 
Trinity Sunday, 186 note 



ULDES, or Uldin, pursues Gainas, 
and kills him, 274 
Ulphilas, preaching of, to the Goths, 

399 
Unilas, a Gothic bishop, appointed by 

Chrysostom, 247 ; dies after a short 

but active career, 392 
Ursicinus, consecration of, by Paul, 

bishop of Tibur, violently stopped by 

Damasus, 50 



VALENS, the Emperor, on amicable 
terms with Libanius, 13 ; favoured 
the Arians, 22 ; expelled bishop Me- 
letius, 43 ; his decree against the 
practisers of magic, 61 ; persecution 
of the monks, 76-78; destruction by 
the Goths, 97, 99 ; forbids the sacri- 
fice of animals, 150 

Valentinian, his decree against magi- 
cians, 61 ; his fate, 99; territory se- 
cured to him by Theodosius, 148 ; 
forbids the sacrifice of animals, 1 50 

Valentinian II., 195 ; flight to Thessa- 
lonica, 199; accompanies Theodosius 
to Rome, 201 ; in possession of his 
dominions, 208 ; treachery of his 
general of the forces, Arbogastes, 
208 ; found strangled, 208 



ZOSIMUS 
Valentinians, a church of, set fire to by 

fanatics, 200 
Valentinus, error of, 119 
Valentmus, entreated to benevolence by 

Chrysostom, 393 
Venerius, bishop of Milan, Chrysostom's 

letter to, 348- 349 ; sends a letter by 

the Italian deputation, 368 
Vicentius, presbyter and friend of 

Jerome, 304 
Victor Uticensis, 24 
Victory, news of, proclaimed gratuitously 

by Theodosius, 202 
Visigoths, a colony of, established in 

Thrace, 147 



WEALTH, Chrysostom on, 164-165 
Wesley, John, at Oxford, 29 ; as 
a preacher, 445 
Western Church, the, acknowledges 
Paulinus, 21; favourable to clerical 
celibacy, 228 ; does not fully accept 
Origen's teachings, 299 ; appealed to 
by the Eastern Church, 349 ; not 
able to insist on justice to Chry- 
sostom, 362 ; breaks off communica- 
tion with Theophilus and Atticus, 
374 ; demands the convocation of a 
general council, 374 
Western theology, 408-409 
Westminster, sanctuary of, 260 
Women, influence of, on early Chris- 
tianity, 11, 12; they baffle Julian 
and Governor Alexander, at Antioch, 
11 ; Libanius's letter on, 12; inter- 
ference in the election of bishops, 51 ; 
multitudes take vows of celibacy, 65 ; 
degraded position in the East, 101 



ZOSIMUS, 161 note; account of the 
pursuit of Gainas, 273 



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STUDENT'S MANUAL OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

THE ANNALS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH FROM ITS FOUNDATION 
TO THE EYE OF THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION. 

By PHILIP SMITH, B.A., 

Author of "The Student's Old and New Testament Histories." 
With Illustrations. Post 8vo. 



HISTORICAL MEMORIALS OF WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 

FROM ITS FOUNDATION TO THE PRESENT TIME. 
By ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY, D.D. f 

Dean of Westminster. 
Fourth Edition. With 40 Illustrations. 8vo. 



JO, MURRAY'S LIST OF ANNOUNCEMENTS. 7 

BOSWELL'S LIFE OF JOHNSON. 

By JOHN WILSON CROKER. 

Wjth Notes by Lord Stowell. Sir Walter Scott, Sir James Mackintosh, 
Disraeli, Markland, Lockhart, &c. 

Seventh Edition. "With Portraits. One Volume. Medium 8vo. 

"Notwithstanding Maoaulay's slashing criticism in the Blue and Yellow, the book has 
steadily maintained its ground as by far the best edition of Boswell. Upwards of 40,000 copies 
have been sold, and such is still the demand for it that a new library edition is even now in 
preparation." — Quarterly Review. 



NOTES ON THE CHURCHES OF KENT. 

By the late SIR STEPHEN GLYNNE, Bart. 
"With Illustrations. 8vo. 



THE HUGUENOTS. 

THEIR SETTLEMENTS, CHURCHES, AND INDUSTRIES IN ENGLAND 
AND IRELAND. 

By SAMUEL SMILES, 

Author of " Self-Help," "Character," " Thrift," &c. 

JV< w and Enlarged Edition. Crown Svo. 



POETICAL WORKS OF ALEXANDER POPE. 

Edited by WHITWELL ELWIN, B.A. 

VOL. III., THE SATIRES, &c. 
8vo. 



THE ART OF DOG-BREAKING. 

WITH ODDS AND ENDS FOR THOSE WHO LOYE THE DOG and THE GUN. 
By GENERAL HUTCHINSON, 

Fifth Edition. With Illustrations by F. W. Keyl. Crown 8vo. 



MB. MUBBAY'S LIST OF ANNOUNCEMENTS. 



HANDBOOK TO THE ENGLISH CATHEDRALS. 

[SOUTHERN DIVISION.] 

WINCHESTER, SALISBURY, EXETER, WELLS, ROCHESTER, CANTERBURY 
CHICHESTER, AND ST. ALBANS. 

By RICHARD J. KING, B.A. Exeter College, Oxford. 

Revised Edition. With 120 Illustrations. 2 vols. Crown Sto. 365. 
\* In this edition, a detailed account of St. Alban's is given, with Illustration s. 



THE STUDENT'S FRENCH GRAMMAR. 

A PRACTICAL AND HISTORICAL GRAMMAR OF THE FRENCH 

LANGUAGE. 

By CHARLES HERON-WALL, 

Late Assistant-Master of Brighton Collage. 

With an Introduction by M. LITTRE, 

Member of the French Academy and Author of a " Dictionary of the French Language." 

Post 8vo. 

This Grammar is the work of a practical and experienced teacher. It has been his- 
special aim to produce a book which would work well in schools where Latin and Greek 
form the principal subjects of study. In its preparation all the latest books in French 
philology have been carefully studied. 



SECOND AND CONCLUDING VOLUME OF 

PRINCIPLES OF GREEK ETYMOLOGY. 

By PROFESSOR GEORG CURTIUS, of Leipzig. 

Translated from the German by A. S. WILKINS, M.A., Professor of Latin and Conv 
parative Philology, and E. B. ENGLAND, M.A., Assistant Lecturer in Classics, 

"3ge, 2' 

8vo. 



MEDIMAL LATIN-ENGLISH DICTIONARY. 

Based on the Great Work of DUCANGE. 
He-arranged and Edited, with many Additions and Corrections, 

By E. A. DAYMAN, B.D., 

Prebendary of Sarum, formerly Fellow and Tutor of Exeter College, Oxford, 

Assisted by J- H. HESSELS. 

SmaU 4to. 



Mr mumrats list OF ANNOUNCEMENTS. 9 

KIRKES' HANDBOOK OF PHYSIOLOGY. 

By W. MORRANT BAKER, F.R.C.S., 

Lecturer on Physiology and Assistant Surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and Surgeon to the 
Evelina Hospital for Sick Children. 

Ninth Edition. With 350 Illustrations. Post 8vo. 

The Chapters on the Structural and Chemical Composition of the Human 
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Generation and Development, have been wholly or in great part re-written ; and 
the text has been much altered in many other Chapters, especially those on the Blood, 
Circulation, Respiration, Digestion, and the Nervous System. 

About 160 new Illustrations have beoii added. 



METALLURGY. 

THE ART OF EXTRACTING METALS FROM THEIR ORES, AND ADAPTING 
THEM TO VARIOUS PURPOSES OF MANUFACTURE. 

5th Division. — SILVEK. 

By JOHN PERCY, M.D., F.R.S., 

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"With numerous Illustrations. 8vo. 



DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 

FOR PRACTICAL REFERENCE, METHODICALLY ARRANGED, AND 
BASED UPON THE BEST PHILOLOGIC AUTHORITIES. 

Medium 8vo. 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 

By MARY SOMERVILLE. 

Seventh Edition, Revised. With Portrait. Post 8vo. 



CONNEXION OF THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 

By MARY SOMERVILLE. 

Tenth Edition. Revised. With Illustrations. Post 8vo. 



MURRAY'S CONDENSED HANDBOOK FOR TRAVELLERS 
IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 

ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED IN ONE VOLUME, 

Post 8vo. 



10 ME. MURRAY'S LIST OF ANNOUNCEMENTS, 

HANDBOOK OF FAMILIAR QUOTATIONS 

FROM ENGLISH AUTHORS. 

Fourth Edition, revised and enlarged. Fcap. 8vo. 



INDUSTRIAL BIOGRAPHY; 

OR, IRON WORKERS AND TOOL MAKERS. 

By SAMUEL SMILES. 

New Edition. Post 8vo. 6s. 

Printed uniform vrith " Self Help," " Character," and " Thrift. 



HANDBOOK FOR KENT AND SUSSEX. 

Canterbury, Dover, Pamsgate, Rochester, Chatham, Brighton, Chichester. 
Worthing, Hastings, Lewes, Arundel. 

New and Revised Edition. Map. Post 8vo. 



THE ILIAD OF HOMER. 

TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH BLANK TERSE. 

By EDWARD, EARL OF DERBY. 
Fourth Edition. With Portrait. 2 vols. Crown 8vo. 125. 



A PRACTICAL GRAMMAR OF THE GERMAN LANGUAGE, 

POP ADVANCED STUDENTS. 

With a Sketch of the Historical Development of the Language 
and its Principal Dialects. 

By Dr. LEONHARD SCHMITZ, F.R.S.E., 

Classical Examiner in the University of London. 
Post Svo. 



THE GERMAN PRINCIPIA, PART II. 

A BEADING BOOK; 

Containing Fables, Stories, and Anecdotes, Natural History, and Scene; 
from the History of Germany. 

With Grammatical Questions and Notes. 

12mo. 3s. Qd. 



Albemarle Street, 
October, 1876. 



MR. MURRAY'S 

LIST OF NEW WORKS 



THIRD SERIES. 



LECTURES ON THE HISTORY OF THE 
JEWISH CHUECH. 

FROM THE CAPTIVITY TO THE CHRISTIAN ERA. 

By A. P. STANLEY, D.D., Dean of Westminster. 

With Hans. 8vo. 14.?. 



BULGARIAN HORRORS, 
AND THE QUESTION OF THE EAST. 

By the RIGHT HON. W. E. GLADSTONE, M.P. 

807/i Thousand. Large type, 8vo, Is. 6d. Cheap Edition, 6d. 



Also, MR. GLADSTONE'S SPEECH AT GREENWICH. 8vo. Is. 
♦ 

DICTIONARY OF CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 

Comprising the History, Institutions, and Antiquities of the 

Christian Church, 

From the Time of the Apostles to the Age of Charlemagne. 

By Various Writers. 
Edited by DR. WM. SMITH and REV. PROF. CHEETHAM, M.A. 

Vol. I. To be completed in 2 Vols. With Illustrations. Medium 8vo. 31s. 6d. 
* * Tnis work forms a continuation of Smith's Dictionary of the Bible. 



12 ME. MUEEAY'S LIST OP NEW WOEKS. 

THE LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 

SCULPTOR, PAINTER, AND ARCHITECT ; 

Including inedited Documents from the Buonarroti Archives, illustrative of his Life 
and Works, now for the first time published. 

By CHARLES HEATH WILSON. 

"With Portrait and Illustrations. Royal 8vo. 26s. 



MEMOIR OF CAROLINE HERSCHEL, 

SISTER OF SIR WILLIAM AND AUNT OF SIR JOHN HERSCHEL. 
By MRS. JOHN HERSCHEL. 

2nd Thousand. With Portraits. Crown 8vo, 12s. 

-+ 



LAST JOURNALS OF DR. LIVINGSTONE IN 
CENTRAL AFRICA, 1865-73. 

Continued by a Narrative of his last moments and sufferings. 
By REV. HORACE WALLER, M.A., F.R.G.S. 

With Portrait, Maps, and Illustrations. 2 Vols. 8vo. 28s. 



LIFE OF BISHOP SUMNER, D.D. 

DURING AN EPISCOPATE OF FORTY YEARS. 

WITH EXTRACTS FROM HIS CORRESPONDENCE. 

By his Son, GEORGE HENRY SUMNER, M.A. 

Honorary Canon of Winchester, and Rector of Old Alresford, Hants. 
With Portrait. 8vo. 14s. 



NEW GUINEA AND POLYNESIA. 

DISCOVERIES & SURVEYS in NEW GUINEA and the ADJACENT ISLANDS. 

A Cruise in Polynesia and Visits to the Pearl Shell Stations 
in Torres Strait of H.M.S. Basilisk. 

By CAPTAIN MORESBY, R.N. 

With Map and Illustrations. 8vo. 15s. 



MR. MURRAY'S LIST OF NEW WORKS. 



13 



LESSONS FROM NATURE 
AS MANIFESTED IN MIND AND MATTER 

By ST. GEORGE MIVART, F.R.S., Ph.D., 

Professor of Biology at University College, Kensington, and Lecturer on Zoology and Comparative 
Anatomy at St. Mary's Hospital. 

8vo. 155. 



THRIFT. 

A BOOK OF DOMESTIC COUNSEL. 
By SAMUEL SMILES, 



Industry. 
Habits of Thrift. 
Improvidence. 
Means of Saving. 
Examples of Thrift. 
Methods of Economy. 



Author of "Lives of the Engineers. 
CONTENTS: 

Life Assurance. 
Savings Banks. 
Little Things. 
Masters and Men. 
The Crosslisys. 

20th Thousand. Fost 8vo. 6s. 



Living arove the Means. 
Great Debtors. 
Riches and Charity. 
Healthy Homes. 
Art of Living. 



A Companion Volume to "Self-Help," "Character," and "Industrial Biography." 



SECRET HISTORY OF THE VATICAN 
COUNCIL. 

Ok, EIGHT MONTHS AT ROME DURING ITS SITTINGS. 
By POMPONIO LETO. 

Translated from the Italian, with the Original Documents. 
8vo. 125. 



ROME AND THE NEWEST FASHIONS 
IN RELIGION. 

THREE TRACTS. 
By RIGHT HON. W. E. GLADSTONE, M.P. 

Collected Edition. With a New Preface. 8vo. Is. 6d. 
Contents. — The Vatican Decrees. — Vaticanism. — The Fore's Speeches. 



NARRATIVE OF SPORT IN ABYSSINIA 

ON THE MAEEB AND TACKAZZEE. 
By THE EARL OF MAYO. 

With Illustrations. Post 8vo. 12*. 



14 MB. MURRAY'S LIST OF NEW WORKS. 

THE EAELY LIFE OF DEAN SWIFT, 
1667-1711. 

By the late JOHN FORSTER, LL.D. 
With Portrait and Facsimiles. Syo. 15s. 



HISTOEY OF INDIAN AND EASTEEN 
AECHITECTUEE. 

By JAMES FERGUSSON, F.R.S. 
With 400 Illustrations. Medium Syo. 425. 



THE SPEAKEE'S COMMENTAEY ON THE 
OLD TESTAMENT, 

EXPLAXATOEY AND CRITICAL, WITH A EEVISIOX OF THE 
TEANSLATIOX. 

By BISHOPS and CLERGY of the ANGLICAN CHURCH. 

Edited by F. C. COOK, M.A., 

Canon of Exeter, Preacher at Lincoln's Inn, and Chaplain in Ordinary to the Queen. 

Vol. I. — Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. 30*. 

Vols. II. and III.— Joshua, Judges, Kuth, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, 
Xehemiah, Esther. 365. 

Vol. IV.— Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. 24s. 

Vol. V. — Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations. 2Cs. 

Vol. VI. — Ezekiel, Daniel, The Minor Prophets. 2os. 

.Complete in 6 Vols. Medium 8vo. 



METALLUEGY ; 

THE AET OF EXTRACTING METALS FEOM THEIE OEE. 
By JOHN PERCY, M.D., F.R.S., 

Lecturer on Metallurgy at the Government School of Mines, Honorary Member the Institution of 

Civil Engineers, &c. 

FIRST DIVISION.— -FUEL. 

Eefractory Metals, Fire Bricks, Coal, 

File Clays, "Wood, Charcoal, 

Crucibles, Peat, Coke, &c. 

Xew and Revised Edition. With Illustrations. Syo. 305. 



MR. MURRAY'S LIST OF NEW WORKS. 15 

SPORT AND WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA, 

WITH INCIDENTS OF THE CAFFRE WAR, 
By MAJOR-GENERAL BISSET, C.B. 

"With Map and Illustrations. Crown Svo. 14s. 



ABGO; 

Or, THE QUEST OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE. 

A METRICAL TALE. 

By the EARL OF CRAWFORD AND BALCARRES. 

8vo. 10s. 6d. 



TROY AND ITS REMAINS. 

A NARRATIVE OF DISCOVERIES AND RESEARCHES MADE ON 
THE SITE OF ILIUM, AND IN THE TROJAN PLAIN. 

By DR. HENRY SCHLIEMANN. 

2nd Thousand. With 500 Illustrations. Roval 8vo. 42s. 



POETICAL WORKS OF LORD HOUGHTON 

New Edition. With Portrait. 2 vols. Fcap. 8vo. 12s. 



SHORT HISTORY OF NATURAL SCIENCE; 

AND OF THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY FROM THE TIME 
OF THE GREEKS TO THE PRESENT DAI 7 . 

By ARABELLA B. BUCKLEY. 

"With Illustrations. Post 8vo. 9s. 



BIBLE LANDS AND BIBLE CUSTOMS 

ILLUSTRATIVE OF SCRIPTURE. 
By HENRY VAN LENNEP, D.D., 

Author of " Travels in Asia Minor." 
With Maps and 350 Illustrations. 2 vols. 8vo. 21s. 



36 MR MURRAY'S LIST OF NEW WORKS. 

THE 

CAUCASUS, PEESIA, AND TUEKEY IN ASIA, 

INCLUDING A JOURNEY TO NINEVEH AND BABYLON, AND 
ACROSS THE DESERT TO PALMYRA. 

By BARON MAX VON THIELMANN. 
Translated feom the German by CHAS. HENEAGE, F.R.G.S. 

"With Map and Illustrations. 2 Vols. Post 8vo. 18s. 



FOUNDATIONS OF RELIGION IN THE 
MIND AND HEART OF MAN. 



By SIR JOHN BYLES, 

Late Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. 
Post 8vo. Cs. 



COMPANIONS FOR THE DEVOUT LIFE; 

LECTURES ON WELL-KNOWN DEVOTIONAL WORKS DELIVERED 
IN ST. JAMES'S CHURCH, LONDON, 1875. 

CONTESTS : 

The 'De Imitations Christi.' Canon FA BEAR, D.D. 

The 'Pensees' of Blaise Pascal. Dean CHURCH, M.A. 

St. Francis of Sales' 'Introduction to the Devout Life.' Dean GOULBUEN, D.D. 

Baxter and 'The Saints' Rest.' Archbishop TEENCH, D.D. 

St. Augustine's 'Confessions.' Bishop ALEXANDEE, D.D. 

Jeremy Taylor's 'Holy Living and Dying.' Rev. W. G. HUJTBHRY, B.D. 

First Series. 8vo. 7s. 6(7. 



MEMOIR OF SIR RODERICK MURCHISON 

INCLUDING EXTRACTS FROM HIS JOURNALS AND LETTERS. 

With Notices of his Scientific Contemporaries, etc. 

By ARCHIBALD GEIKIE, LL.D., F.R.S. 

Murchison-Professor of Geology and Mineralogy in the University of Edinburgh, and 
Director ot the Geological Survey of Scotland. 

With Portraits, &c. 2 vols. 8vo. 30.<?. 



MB. MUEltAY'S LIST OF NEW WORKS. 17 



THE SLAVONIC PROVINCES, SOUTH OF 
THE DANUBE. 

THEIR HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE IN RELATION 
TO THE OTTOMAN PORTE. 

By WILLIAM FORSYTH, Q.C., LL.D., M.P. 

With Map. Post Svo. Us. 



THE COAST OF KUSSIAN TARTARY, EASTERN 
SIBERIA, JAPAN, AND FORMOSA. 

FROM THE CO RE A TO THE RIVER AMUR. 
By CAPT. B. W. BAX, R.N., of H.M.S. DWARF. 

With Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 12s. 



THE VAUX-DE-VIBE OF MAISTRE JEAN 
LE HOUX, ADVOCATE, OF VIBE. 

Translated and Edited by JAMES PATRICK MTJIRHEAD, M.A. 

With Portrait and Illustrations. 8vo. 21s. 



THE MOON; 

CONSIDERED AS A PLANET, A WORLD, AND A SATELLITE. 
By JAMES NASMYTH, C.E., and JAMES CARPENTER, F.R.A.S. 

With Illustrations of Lunar Objects, Phenomena, and Scenery. 
Second Edition. 4to. 30s. 



THE TEAVELS OF MAECO POLO, 

DESCRIBING THE KINGDOMS AND MARVELS OF THE EAST. 

A New English Version. 

By COL. HENRY YULE, C.B. 

Late Royal Engineers (Bengal). 
Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged, 
With 19 Maps and 13u Illustrations. 2 Vol.*, Medium Svo. 63c?. 



18 MR. MURRAY'S LIST OF NEW WORKS. 



FRAGMENTS ON ETHICAL SUBJECTS, 



AND 



LETTERS ON THE POLITICS OF 
SWITZERLAND. 

By the late GEORGE GROTE, F.R.S. 

2 vols. 8vo. 135. 6d. 



A 

SCHOOL MANUAL OF MODERN GEOGEAPHY, 

PHYSICAL AND POLITICAL. 
By JOHN RICHARDSON, M.A., 

Vicar of St. Mary's Hospital, and Diocesan Inspector of Schools. 
Post 8vo. 5s. 



TILLAGE COMMUNITIES IN THE EAST 
AND WEST. 

By SIR HENRY MAINE, LL.D. 

Corpus Professor of Jurisprudence in the University of Oxford, and Member of the Indian Council. 
Third Edition. With ADDITIONAL ESSAYS'. 8vo. 12s. 



THE HAWAIIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 

OR, SIX MONTHS IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. 
By ISABELLA BIRD, 

Author of the "Englishwoman in America." 
New and Cheaper Edition. With Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6c 



THE LAND OF THE NORTH WIND, 

OR TRAVELS AMONG THE LAPLANDERS AND SAMOYEDES, 
AND ALONG THE SHORES OF THE WHITE SEA. 

By EDWARD RAE. 

With Map and Woodcuts. Post 8vo. 10s. 6d. 



ME. MTTEEAT'S LIST OF NEW WORKS. 19 

HISTOKY OF HERODOTUS; 

A NEW ENGLISH VERSION. 

Edited, with copious Notes and Essays, from the most recent sources of in formation, 
Historical and Ethnographical, which have been obtained in the progress of Caneifor 
and Hieroglyphieal Discovery. 

By GEORGE RAWLINSON", M.A., 

Canon of Canterbury, and Camden Professor of Ancient History at Oxford. 

Assisted by Sir Henry Katvlinson and Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson. 
Third Edition, Revised. "With Maps and 350 "Woodcuts. 4 vols. 8vo. 48s. 



in 



POETICAL REMAINS OF EDWARD 
CHURTON, M.A. 

Late Archdeacon- of Clkyf.land. 

INCLUDING TRANSLATIONS AND IMITATIONS. 
With Portrait. Post 8vo. Is, Stf. 



AN ATLAS OF ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY. 

BIBLICAL AND CLASSICAL. 

Intended to illustrate Smith's Classical and Biblical Dictionaries, 
and the "Speaker's Commentary on the Bible." 

Compiled under the superintendence of 

DR. WM. SMITH and MR. GEORGE GROVE. 

With Descriptive Text, giving the Sources and Authorities, Indices, &c. 

"With 43 Maps. Folio, half-bound. £6 6s. 



THE NICENE AND APOSTLES' CREEDS. 

THEIR LITERARY HISTORY 1 "; 

TOGETHER "WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE GROWTH AND RECEPTION 
OF "THE CREED OF ST. ATHANASIUS:" 

By C. A. SWAINSON, D.D., 

Canon of Chichester and Norrisian Professor of Divinity .it Cam! ridge. 
"With Facsimile. 8vo. 165. 



20 MR. MURRAY'S LIST OF NEW WORKS. 

COMMENTARIES ON THE LAWS OF ENGLAND 
OF SIR WILLIAM BLACKSTONE. 

ADAPTED TO THE PRESENT STATE OF THE LAW. 
By R. MALCOLM KERR, LL.D., 

Judge of the City of Loudon Court, and one of the Commissioners of the Central Criminal Court. 
Fourth Edition, incorporating all the Recent Changes in the Law. 4 vols. 8vo. 60-9. 

♦ 

ENGLAND AND EUSSIA IN THE EAST. 

A SERIES OF 

PAPERS ON THE POLITICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITION 
OF CENTRAL ASIA 

By MAJOR-GEN. SIR HENRY RAWLINSON, K.C.B., F.R.S., 

Member of the Council of India. 
Second Edition. With Map. 8vo. 12s. 



VIE DE SEINT AUBAN. 

A POEM IN NORMAN-FRENCH, ASCRIBED TO MATTHEW PARIS. 

now for the first time edited from a ms. in the library of trinity colleffe, 
Dublin. With Concordance, Glossary, and Notes. 

By ROBERT ATKINSON, M.A., LL.D. 

Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology in the University of Trinity College, Dublin. 
Small 4to. 10s. 6d. 



THE PRINCIPLES OF GEOLOGY; 

Or, THE MODERN CHANGES OF THE EARTH AND ITS INHABITANTS, 
CONSIDERED AS ILLUSTRATIVE OF GEOLOGY. 

By SIR CHARLES LYELL. 

Tti'clfth Edition, -with Illustrations, 2 vols. Svo. 32s. 



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